Expansion Edition
by Danen5
Summary: Its a game. Or is it? Turians get to welcome the denizens of a Stellaris based civilization that is hell bent on the extermination of all aliens, well except for some. Of course the Turians fired first, Galactic laws and all that bullshit. In return they are faced with an enemy that doesn't play fair. Warning: HFY. Read at your own peril AU Fic. Rated T for ridiculous explanations.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Expansion Edition

**AN: So I was reading a FoZ/ZnT who had the main character's _Game avatar_ summoned by Louise, the guy is viewing the FoZ/ZnT universe from his laptop through his game avatar's POV and is playing it like a game. Now I've had similar ideas before but I hadn't decided to use them yet. But that story inspired me and now this is the result.**

 **Of course this isn't a FoZ/ZnT story but a Mass Effect n Stellaris xover. Again. I know but I just love this idea so much I had to write it down.**

 **Note: I don't know if anyone else has a similar idea for this little xover but for goodness sakes, I ask that you tell me so we can agree to disagree on a few things.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except for what happens when my character messes up things.**

* * *

 **2017 AD**

I love video games. Ever since I was old enough to play my first console. Cartridges, for Mario and all of the classic games from the eighties and nineties. Of course I was only about five at the time so I think that doesn't count. What counts though would be my cousin's Xbox, the first ones to hit the market in the early 2000s, which also happened to have Halo: Combat Evolved. Man I love that first one, played for days on end repeating it once I've finished the whole campaign from Easy level all the way to frigging legendary! That was a doozy, let me tell you, a kid of six years beat Legendary within three months! Ha! In your Face Elites! You and your _wort, wort, wort_!

I remember this one time, I played on Legendary again, during that mission on to go find the Cartographer, I think, and when we landed and dropped from the pelicans there were a group of grunts to the left near the cliff wall. I saw one of them toss one of those damned sticky plasma grenades and it sailed up in a high arc. From what I saw, the thing was gonna land right on some unlucky marine who wasn't paying attention and I ran towards the guy. I never took my eyes off of that grenade.

I yelled out, "Noooo!" at the screen and I pressed the _A_ causing Master Chief to jump up just as the blue grenade was about two or three meters above the marine. To my own amused and utter surprise...I managed to save that clueless marine. But now I have a frigging plasma bomb stuck on my chest and I'm running around like a headless chicken, shooting at any Elites or grunts that I saw. Five seconds later and BOOM! I'm dead. Way to go Master Chief, way to go.

Look on the bright side...you just respawn at the checkpoint and try again. This time I threw a frag at the left group of grunts hiding behind those rocks. They blew up and shrieked much to my delight. Ah...good times those.

Now...

Well, now I'm stuck with a laptop and my new favorite Game genre, my number 1 genre to be exact, are RTS games. However, I don't just like any RTS games, for example, the first RTS that introduced me to the genre was Age of Empires! Yep thats right! One of the first and most classic RTS games ever to hit the shelf, now I didn't buy the game itself since my uncle already did that, but when I first played it, it was like my whole world suddenly opened up with a lot of possibilities. It was with RTS games that I discovered my own knack for management, resource allocation and distribution was very exciting, for me atleast. From Age of Empires I graduated to Empire Earth, which introduced me to the concept of customization, another attribute of RTS games that I found very interesting and well worth the time and effort.

After all, who doesn't want his own civilization to rule the world? Am I right?

...

Guys?

...

Oh well, more for me then.

So yeah, RTS is my number 1 genre, followed closely by FPS in second place, with 3rd Person-Shooters/RPG/action in third place. Other game genres I mostly indulge when I am seriously BORED out of my mind!

However, what truly got me hooked in strategy games were two things. First was a game called, ROME: TOTAL WAR and Galactic Civilizations. For the first game, I was truly captivated by the thought of leading my own Legionary army against a horde of barbarians, except where the Germanians were concerned. Those buggers with their Berserkers are frigging OP! I call foul! As for the second game, well I was scrolling through my uncle's external storage drive and found one of his many _hidden_ folders. In it I found a variety of...well...you get what I mean.

But that was not all that I found. I hit the mother-load and found his stash of new PC games. Among the listed one, I found ROME 2: Total, meh, already got that...cost me but worth it, although many people found the game unsatisfactory I found it to be entertaining...like WASHING dishes entertaining! Seriously, I think the elevators on the Citadel in Mass Effect move faster than ROME 2's AI turns.

But I'm getting off topic.

Lets restart...from the top.

* * *

 **2017**

 **My apartment**

 **0400 hrs**

I came back home around two hours ago. Man was that some party. I lost count how many times my friends took those shot. The entire pub was lit up brighter than a Sunday morning. I mean, there were lights everywhere! Look left and there's a light blinding you! Look right and there's another light, right in your eyes! Up, down or sideways there were fracking lights every-fucking-where! That must have cost quite the Electricity bill for the pub owner. I pity the guy...I think I saw him with crocodile tears when I passed by his office after hitting the head.

Anyways, so since I was the designated _driver_ , more like a glorified chauffeur, I hadn't so much as a sip of alcohol! Ha! Who am I kidding? I don't drink! So I just ended up watching my friends and their girlfriends get wasted, luckily for them I own a mini-van with fifteen seats and there were six of them so I ended up having to haul their asses back to my mini-van and then proceeded to drop their sorry excuse for human beings back at their respective places. I got called an hour ago and it was Jessica. She screamed in my ear about trying to get her to cheat on Michael (who is her boyfriend) by dropping her and Timothy together back at her place.

Oops.

I quickly apologized only to get a call from Michael who was begging me to go over to his place because, surprise, surprise, Lisa (who is Timothy's girlfriend) was about to murder him with a fire axe from his emergency fire-fighting kit. I rushed over to his place after hanging up and found the two of them in the sack going at it like teenagers! Holy shit!

Next thing I know they're both embarrassed and admitted to having had feelings for each other and then after Lisa had calmed down, enough for Michael to talk to her, they had somehow managed to...hit it off. To say I was surprised is the understatement of the month. I was completely blown away, not only because of that sudden revelation but also because I got a call from Timothy that he was on his way to my place with Jessica.

"Why?" I asked him. Still staring at the two interlopers in front of me.

"We need to clear things up a bit...wait, where are you? I can hear Lisa from here?" _Oh shit_! I panicked and muffled the transmitter, I motioned for Lisa and Michael to get dressed quick. Then I put the phone back to my ear.

"Yeah...about that, can you come over to Michael's?"

"Sure thing." He hung up and I simply shake my head and sat down on the couch. _This is going to be interesting._

Twenty minutes later, both Timothy and Jessica pulled up in front of the complex building that housed Michael's apartment and they took the lift up. They entered the apartment and we all sat down in the living room. I saw opposite the couples and watched them as they avoided each others' eyes and twiddled their thumbs and fidgeted as if they had been caught doing something they knew they shouldn't have. Of course, I caught Michael and Lisa in bed so I can understand why they would act a little anxious and nervous but Jessica and Timothy?

...

 _Oh I think I know what's going here..._

"So you guys have anything to say?" They were all startled and looked at me in surprise. I find it funny but the current situation is a bit out of my depth...seriously if they were in love with another person aside from their own boy/girlfriend then why not just admit it?

"I-I-" Lisa was stammering! She never does that...her usual seriousness and angry demeanor was completely gone. Was she really this embarrassed?

"Stop." I held up my right hand and stopped her. "Okay guys you have to come clean on something. Jessica," she perked up a little when I said her name. "Do you or do you not have feelings for Timothy?"

The four of them glared at me but I didn't care, if they keep their feelings bottled they're going to regret it. "Just be honest, because I caught these two in bed when I came into the apartment roughly half-an hour ago." I pointed at Michael and Lisa who both looked like they wanted to murder me, luckily I already called Kate and her boyfriend, Mark (who I had just met and who was also not a drinker)...so if they kill me then I've got insurance.

"WHAT!" Jessica and Timothy both yelled and looked to Lisa and Michael who avoided their gaze. I simply sighed and then with a serious stare at Timothy and Jessica I cleared my throat so they turned to me.

"And you two had just finished your little exercise as well...I'm assuming that isn't mayonnaise on your face?" I smirked as Jessica quickly wiped away on the little bit of semen near her lower lips.

"HOW COULD YOU!" This time it was Michael and Lisa who yelled at the other couple.

"STOP!" I yelled at them. "I'm going to leave now...and when we meet again next weekend. I'm going assume that you've all got this little mess of yours sorted out. Okay? Okay. See ya next week then."

With that said I stood up and bolted out of the apartment just as a verbal storm of swears and curses erupted and I thought I heard a few thumps as I slammed the door behind me. I ain't getting involved in that war of emotions and feelings. Its why I don't have a girlfriend...my golden rule is that I feel that having a girlfriend is a waste of time when you're just entering your early 20s. I'm 23 and I've made up my mind to have a full fledged girlfriend when I hit 27. After all, I still got plans before I find the missus.

Unlike some people...you just need to look at the situation up there to realize the complexities of relationships which is one of the reasons why I don't want a girlfriend just yet...but...I'm getting off topic again.

*sigh*

You know what...lets restart again.

* * *

 **2017**

 **My apartment**

 **0450 hrs**

So its near 5 in the morning and I'm sitting at my desk with my computer booted up in front of me. I lit the small lamp on the desk, to avoid an early blind retirement, and scrolled through my desktop wondering just what the hell was I going to do. I mean, after that debacle an hour earlier I decided to just forget about it by diving into my games, which now reminds me.

I clicked on a folder marked, _Top Secret_ , don't ask, then scrolled through the list. I've got a lot of games installed onto my home computer for the sole reason that I get bored real easy. And trust me when I'm bored I tend to get lost within my own thoughts and that is not a good thing. Definitely not a good thing considering the fact that I once lost myself in my own head only to realize that I was on the edge of the fracking train platform with two cops trying to talk me out of jumping onto an incoming train!

After that little incident I had to go through five different therapists and four life counselors...whatever the heck that meant.

So as I decided on which game to play, which was Stellaris, and then went to go get a bowl of Twisties. You know for a snack while I play an RTS game. Stellaris is relatively new to the RTS genre but was made by Paradox...I think, so it was and still is a pretty awesome game. I bought it a few days ago after seeing the trailer, I know its late for me to buy but I waited for it to get a serious upgrade from its more mundane first frame now with the latest updates I'm glad I waited for a while.

The loading screen reached 100% and the menu came up. A nice one too, the visual is mind blowing and the shipyard in the background with the flying shuttles heading towards it at the start of the sequence is pretty cool. I selected the load saves option and then loaded my latest save. Now I've been playing through my eighth playthrough with a customized human faction which I've dubbed, _The Tunarin Imperial Covenant_ , with the ethos of spiritualist and a fanatic militarist. An interesting combination seeing as how I wanted this humanity to be like the _Covenant_ from Halo, purging aliens from existence. *Evil laugh insert here*

As for the reason why I didn't add xenophobe to the ethics, well I kinda have some ulterior motives for that. Not revealing it though since I don't even know what those motives are. *Sigh* Sometimes I tend to contradict myself.

The screen finishes loading and the next I know the computer shuts itself down and then rebooted. "What the hell!" I growled at the damn thing but just rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration and hoped nothing got deleted prematurely.

After twenty-eight minutes of rebooting and making sure that none of my game and work data had been prematurely _killed_ _off_ , I was relieved to find none of the more important stuff were missing. Only a few minor files and documents were gone during the shutdown and I decided to continue where I left off. Stellaris loaded once more and reaching a 100% with the menu showing up afterwards, I paused for a moment when I saw the screen.

...

Instead of the usual shipyard floating in space in front of an unknown planet somewhere in the vast cosmos, there was something that I thought was unbelievably shocking and confusing to say the least. Where that shipyard was, now stood something out of one of my favorite 3rd person-shooter and action RPG game. Mass Effect. I shit you not...there on my computer monitor was a frigging Mass Relay with the usual shuttle heading towards it...however, instead of entering or moving closer, the shuttle seemed to hover just a few thousand kilometers away from it, as if unsure of what to do. It was interesting and piqued my interest, I watched the shuttle approach the Relay... _very cautiously_? Huh, that's new. Then again I think the devs or whoever made this...wait a minute!

I think this is a mod! But I don't remember having a Mass Effect mod...did I? I pressed ALT+TAB and opened a new window where I proceeded to search for said mod. I tried for five minutes using every available search options to find it but I couldn't so after that I just shrugged and decided to go for the flow...or was it _with_ the flow? Pressing ALT+TAB again, I returned to the Stellaris menu and saw that it still had _Stellaris_ on it except this time there were two additional words after a colon.

 _Expansion Edition_.

Okay so this must have something to do with an auto-update. After I hooked up my Steam account with most of the games in my arsenal that are updated frequently. This must be what's going on, but why did it shut my computer down? Heh, not my problem but just to make sure I opened up the save menu and saw that my old saves were still there and clicked on the quickload button and waited as the screen loaded. It opened up on my home planet, _Tuna_ , and several notices popped up informing me of energy and mineral output that had reached their max, better start spending on more ships. Or planet buildings.

After I got rid of the other annoying notices, another event box popped up. This one was very different from any other event popups that I've come across. I've come across a lot. So when this one came up I thought nothing of it but when I read it I think my eyes were bulging.

"Okay..." I said while reading the description. It was a direct message to me from one of my scientists in charge of surveying uncharted systems.

" _Praises to thee, Oh Holy One._ " The message started, " _During our initial investigation of the star system, designated Galenix, we encountered a space station of massive proportions. We have determined that the station is dormant. Preliminary scans indicate it uses dark matter or energy as its power source but we are unsure unless you authorize a full investigation into the object. We await your command, Holy One._ "

I read through it three more times. Now I've read a lot of Mass Effect fan fictions and now that I think about this current dilemma, a smile crossed my lips and I pressed the option to authorize the investigation. The sub menu to the right of my screen opened up and I scrolled down to find the science vessel that particular scientist was in command of, I found it, the _TNS Eye of God_ , it was a typical mammalian ship, utilitarian in design with slight angles and large windows.

I zoomed out of my capital system and double clicked on the _Eye of God_ in the sub menu, instantly snapping to where it was. I zoomed in closer to the Mass Relay and it was just like in Mass Effect. I know I should be hyped up about this but I wasn't, the only thing that excited me was what was waiting beyond that damned relay. I knew enough of Mass Effect lore on what to expect but I was curious as to when is this _Expansion_ within the ME verse was set. As the science vessel continued its job I contemplated on my progress thus far in this current playthrough.

First off, my customized human civilization, as I said before, is a fanatic militarist and spiritualist empire, with my government as a martial dictatorship, the traits I chose were _very strong_ and _enduring_. I have an aggressive First Contact protocol and I generally purge entire alien populations, whether space-faring, primitive or pre-sentient. The only alien races that I hadn't purged from the planets I conquered were the Vulcan-lookalikes and the elves (using an elf civilization mod-thank the guy/gal who made that).

Secondly, I've pretty much destroyed any advanced space-faring alien civilizations that pose a threat to me along with the twelve Fallen empires that had reawakened around the 2358. Boy was that time a fun time to be in command of a space empire, lots of battles all round. Fleets were decimated left and right with four of the Fallen Empires being destroyed by their rivals around 2403. By 2513, my empire was the sole survivor of the Galactic War. I am now the uncontested ruler of the galaxy! Muahahahaha!

*Ahem*

And finally, I've gotten free time to upgrade my entire navy and armies. Gene Warriors, Xenomorph armies, Psionic armies, Robotic/android Armies and a whole lot more where those came from, including the titular Titanic Beasts (Yeah!). With Utopia, all of my energy and mineral needs are met and more, I'm in the process of achieving Transcendence one of the Ascension Perks. I've got two ringworlds currently being built while I've taken over several from the now defunct Fallen empires. My fleet numbers in the literal thousands with fifty fleets at my beck and call. I've got armies littered across my core worlds, ringworlds and inner and outer colonies. I've eradicated most of the pesky Amaobea (is that right?), Crystalline entities, void entities and a whole lot of mining drones. Leviathans I leave alone for the simple reason that they are space cows. Harmless really.

I've also got me own space dragon, its not as powerful as the one I fought against but it still packs a punch which I used to fight against the Dreadnought, supported by two fleets of battleships and cruisers. With the Dreadnought repaired and put into service with the 5th Fleet (aka- _Holy Vengeance_ ), and the upgrades from the newly researched Enigmatic technologies, my ships are nigh unstoppable. I pitted a single battleship, an _Artillery_ class warship, armed with a _Giga_ cannon, two _Stormfire_ autocannons, two _Flak_ artillery, and several _Kinetic_ artillery, against three fleets of crystalline entities and it beat the crap out of them without ever engaging in mid or close quarters.

A void entity proved more challenging but with my Enigmatic shield coupled with Hyper-shields powered by Enigmatic generators and Zero-point generators, that single battleship proved effective all by itself except by the time it was able to bring down the damned thing, its shields had dropped to near zero.

The chiming sound of the completed event alerted me to another event popup. This one didn't surprise me at all. Seeing as how the science vessel suddenly disappeared. One moment it was there the next it was-POOF-gone.

"Well shit...should have expected that."

* * *

 **Aboard the _Eye of God_**

"Doctor...what the hell happened?" Captain Harald Vandersen, veteran explorer and pioneer, asked the Science Officer who stood next to him with his jaw hanging low.

"I have no idea." Dr. Leon Kodiak.

Both men stood on the bridge whilst the crew rushed madly around trying to figure out whether or not the ship was compromised...mostly because the ship didn't have any weapons, even with the shields still online. Engineering reported the Jump Drive was damaged beyond repair, luckily the Warp Drive was still functional so that was a plus, except now they were stuck somewhere in the cosmos with a similar device from the one that screwed them over just a few minutes ago.

"Report! Somebody tell me where the hell we are!" Harald yelled to his bridge crew who were still trying to figure out what just happened and where the hell that thing sent them.

"Sir! We have something!" A voice, belonging to the Tactical Operations (TO) Officer, responded a moment later. "Scanners are online and we've picked up very unusual graviton readings bearing down on us-oh shit! Sir it looks like three ships...two are corvette analogues and the other one is a destroyer analogue!"

"On screen!" Harald barked and pretty soon the main screen showed three unidentified flying objects, all of which had extreme angular designs much like a bird of prey and were heading right towards _his_ ship. A ship that had no weapons capabilities! "Damn it!"

"It would seem we are on the other end of our own...First Contact Protocol." Science Officer Leon remarked in a grim tone as he watched the three ships approach the _Eye of God_.

"Sir! We're detecting some sort of frequency on all known comm spectrum...I think the xenos are contacting us." The Comm Officer reported quickly as soon as he saw whatever it was that he saw.

Both Leon and Harald looked at each other and the Captain yelled, "Try and lock onto that frequency and get us a comm line to those ships! We are a civilian research vessel and we are not armed! If you manage to get through, send this: This is Captain Harald of the Tunarin Imperial Covenant, we are not armed! We have civilians onboard this ship and we are not armed! I repeat this is a civilian research vessel on a scientific mission. Do not fire! I repeat, Do NOT fire!"

"You do realize that this is actually a military science ship...right?" Leon stated to the Captain who looked at him with a smirk.

"But they don't know that." Harald retorted, "Besides, its true we have a lot of civilians on board this ship."

"Civilians who all had prior military training and were at one point and some are still in the military." Leon stated again, this annoyed the Captain who simply turned away from the Science Officer.

"I'm not even going to argue with you on that." Harald huffed as he looked away from his superior and watched the screen intently. The three angular ships had an avian feel to them and he should know, because he had fought against an avian race once. About two hundred years ago if his math was right.

"Sir! We're detecting a heat build up from the unknowns!" The TO Officer yelled from his station, "Holy One! They have spinal mounts!"

Hearing that, everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and a tense and horrifying feeling filled the air. They knew what that meant, certain death. No unarmed ship has ever survived a shot from a spinal mount and that was with shields at the max.

"They're firing!"

"Looks like they have a similar First Contact Protocol." Leon pointed out as the three alien ships fired their spinal mounted weapons, the scanners registered them to be some form of mass accelerator. Three streaks of golden light traveled at an unimaginable speed, near or passing the speed of light. Something that should have been impossible, but there it was. And all three were headed towards their lone science ship.

"May the Holy One have mercy on our souls..."

Within a few seconds the mass accelerator rounds hit their ship and it shuddered under the impact but surprisingly they were still alive. How? They weren't sure but the shields had held up against the shots.

"Um..."

"Captain! Shields are at 97%!" The TO Officer reported, he sounded relieved. "Sir Our Capacitors are recharging shields...back at full 100%!"

"How in the hell?!" One crew member asked out loud but the Captain wasn't wasting any more time.

"Someone get me engineering!"

"Captain...you wanted something?" The lazy voice of the Chief Engineer came over the comm. This pissed off the Captain who started shouting and barking into his communicator.

"GET YOUR ASS OFF WHATEVER HIGH THRONE YOU SITTING ON AND TELL ME WHY THIS SHIP ISN'T MOVING!"

"Aachh! My ear!" The CE complained over the comm then came back on again. "Warp drive is online and so are the sublight engines! And why the hell did the ship shudder?!"

"We're under attack. Just be ready to activate the Warp drive if needed! Captain out!" Harald looked to his bridge crew who all seem to be waiting for his orders, _'of course they would'_ he thought. "Get us out of here! Try and move us towards that big fork thing...hopefully it'll send us back to wherever we came from!"

"Aye sir!" The Helmsman nodded and proceeded to punch holographic buttons on his terminal.

"What makes you think that thing will send us back?" Leon, who was the Science Officer, stared incredulously at the Captain. "You're not after my job are you?"

"Now is not the time for that! And I said _hopefully_ , that doesn't mean its a guaranteed win."

"Humph!" Leon pouted and watched the screen turn off as the ship began turning away from the alien ships which had stopped firing, probably surprised at why the ship they fired on was still there. Considering it was far smaller than they were, a mere 100m long by 60m wide and 70m tall and crewed by only 33 men.

The aliens recovered and fired again. This time they continued to fire at the ship whose blue hexagonal shields kept popping up where the rounds would impact. It seemed to frustrate them since they kept firing every two seconds nonstop. Captain Harald was amazed and afraid at the same time because his ship's shields were beginning to fail. That much rapid fire from a spinal weapon should _not_ have been possible! How the hell can they keep up that rate of fire without damaging the weapon?

"Sir! Shield Capacitors are failing-oh shit! Capacitors are gone! Our shields are down 15%!"

"Evasive maneuvers!"Captain Harald yelled at the Helmsman who responded by shifting the ship in an upward arc. This caused the next six mass accelerator rounds to miss completely and forced the three ships to match their maneuver. "Get us to that damned station, helmsman!"

"I'm trying! I'm trying!"

In a flash of blackish blue the core, a gyroscopic device of massive size, snapped into existence just as the science ship neared it. It glowed bright blue for a moment and then a tentacle light of blue reached out and ensnared the _Eye of God_ in its grip and in a sudden flash it hurled or more like threw the ship far out into the void.

* * *

 **My Apartment**

 **On my laptop...**

I had been frantically pressing the retreat button on the menu that showed up when I selected that lone science ship, for the last two minutes. It hadn't responded to my command and I was watching it get peppered by what looked like Turian ships. I must admit that even I was surprised that my hypershields were able to take a lot of beating from those eezo powered spinal mass accelerated cannons. I thought for sure they would break through my ship's shields and destroy it but I guess not.

Man...that was freaking intense.

However, all that said, I find this thing is really weird because...well...when I zoomed out of the system, I discovered that the entire galaxy map was way, WAY, larger than anything Stellaris could generate. The largest was just over a thousand but this galaxy...it looked like the Milky Way (of course it is. The ME verse is based _in_ the Milky Way) and there were literally thousands upon hundreds of thousands of star systems. It was in the billions range and somehow my computer's graphic hardware and software are able to render all of them.

I don't know what is going on but just like all of the galaxies in Stellaris, you can't zoom out of said galaxy but I am pretty sure my galaxy was not a spiral one, I had an elliptical galaxy of about 1000 stars. If this _Expansion Edition_ can do this then I thank the devs for it! The visuals are awesome and with the upgrades I got for my computer I say its pretty cool. Especially in 4k.

I'm trying to find a way to return to my own galaxy, my science vessel had managed to run away on its own but my screen is stuck in the Milky Way. Seeing as how some of the buttons for my home planet and other fleets are still there I double click on one of them and I'm instantly snapped back to my own galaxy. Weird but cool.

Okay so now...I'm going to teach those Turians a lesson.

Hmm...I wonder why there isn't an event popup showing up on the situation log or for that matter there is no new contact on the contact log. Strange...nah! Don't care, I'm just going to send in the 1st Fleet, otherwise known as _Holy Pacifier_. So yeah, everything I name (specifically military fleets) starts with _Holy_. After all you can't have a Covenant without having some parts of it sound holistic.

* * *

 **Aboard the Flagship, _The Pacifier_**

"Admiral Jorik." The Comm Officer saluted as he approached the aged Admiral. "The Holy One has issued commands for us to enter the Galenix system. Our orders are to respond to an immediate threat that had attacked one of our science ships."

"It would seem that new enemies pop up just about every time we get a breathing room." Admiral Jorik sighed. "Very well, alert the fleet and bring weapon and shields online."

"Of course, sir." The Comm officer returned to his station and the Admiral took to his seat. A comfortable leather armchair attached to an anti-gravity device that allows it to float about ten to thirty centimeters above the floor.

"All ships ready for Jump." Announced the TO Officer over the comm. "Standby for Jump in 3...2...1"

There was a flash of light and then the fleet of three hundred ships, 55 battleships, 120 cruisers and 125 destroyers, disappeared from where they had been waiting at the edge of a nearby system, and reappear at the edge of the Galenix system. Each of these ships were then arranged into classes. For example, there are a total of five different battleship classes, such as the _Artillery, Support, Avenger, Defender_ and _Carrier_ class. There are six different cruiser classes which are the _Orion, Javelin, Torpedo, Raider, Wall_ and _Hunter_ class, with four destroyer classes that are the _Corsair, Privateer, Streamer_ and _Police_ class and finally the corvette classes which consist of the _Interceptor, Gunboat_ and _Annoyance_ class. For now the 1st Fleet/ _Holy Pacifier_ , consists of several _Javelin, Torpedo and Hunter_ class cruisers, _Corsair, Privateer and Streamer_ class destroyers with _Artillery, Support and Carrier_ class battleships.

All of which are under the command of Admiral Johann Jorik, and he was damned proud of being its commanding officer for the last three hundred years. He was there during the first space faring years of the _Covenant_ and he was there to witness the power of the Holy One when they had been outnumbered and near death. When they had prayed to the Holy One for deliverance _He_ had answered their prayers. This took on the form of absolute invulnerability for their entire fleet of ships. None of which suffered any sort of damage from their enemies' weapons.

"I miss those days." Jorik mumbled to himself. Reminiscing bygone glory days. Now it was mostly putting down insurrections, pirates and other miscellaneous things. Hopefully whoever attacked the science ship would prove to be a distraction.

"Sir. All ships report green and have made it through Jump." The TO reported with quick military efficiency. "We have set a course towards the station."

"Comm Officer Terrence." Jorik called out the man's name specifically, which meant that he wanted something done personally.

"Yes sir."

"Broadcast a message to the fleet for me."

"Of course sir." He typed on his holographic monitor and then said, "You are on the air, Admiral."

"Listen up people." Jorik began, his voice taking on a dramatic tone. "Reports indicate a hostile enemy force beyond that space station, which according to the Science officer in charge of investigating it, Dr. Kodiak, is some sort of FTL device that allows for instantaneous travel between systems. However, we don't know much beyond that but we do know that whatever was on the other side, was hostile and didn't respond to hails from our science ship. The Holy One has ordered us to go through that device and destroy whoever it was that dared attack us. Gentlemen, I know that you'll do our _Covenant_ proud this day and hopefully we get to conquer whatever these aliens are. For the Holy One! For the _Covenant_! That is all."

The comm was cut off and the fleet moved towards the station. And just as it had happened for the science ship, the device's gyroscopic core detected nearby ships and began spinning at an impossible speed which began giving off a light blue glow that soon turned very bright and began spreading out white-blue tentacles of dark matter. Each one capturing a single ship and sending it hurtling through the void to wherever its sister station was located.

 **Few minutes later...**

"Report!" Jorik demanded as the ship lurched forward very hard that it threatened to break it in two.

"Sir we've arrived in the system the _Eye of God_ was earlier. I've tagged it as Galenix Beta." TO officer, Baggins, spoke from his terminal. "Scanners have detected similar graviton disturbance that the science ship detected when they entered the system...and just as expected our Jump Drives are damaged but can be repaired within three days."

"Three days for a repair?" The Admiral raised his eyebrow, a clear look of confusion on his face. "How is that even possible? Isn't the normal repair duration about a month or at least two weeks?"

"Normally sir but for some reason the dark matter we utilize as one of the power sources for the Jump Drive had been able to interact with the station's glowy blue gyroscope thing...which in turn caused an overload of dark matter that for some reason allowed for our Jump Drives to fail yet be rejuvenated to the point where our dark matter stores are at max." the TO officer Baggins explained.

"Er...in layman terms, TacOp Officer." Jorik had an even more confused and bewildered expression. "Some of us didn't graduate with an engineering and physics doctorate."

"Sorry, sir." Baggins nervously fidgeted. "In layman terms...our Jump Drives get an energy boost from when we are attached to the station via those glowing tentacle things."

"What about the science ship? Their Jump Drive was reported to have been destroyed outright."

"Well sir, that's because theirs wasn't able to withstand that amount of energy surge." Baggins explained. "Basically, their Jump Drive overloaded, same as ours but whereas ours are more larger and with top of the line military upgrades, theirs was the more mundane and not state of the art."

"But aren't all of our science vessels considered military ships?" Jorik pointed that fact out but the TO officer just kept quiet, he wasn't sure why.

"You'll have to ask the Holy One about that sir." Baggins replied.

"Never mind that. What about those graviton readings?"

"There are more than three now. Scanners indicate heavy use of dark matter as is evidenced by the crazy gravitational anomalies around those ships." Baggins said as he squinted at something on his terminal. "Sir, scans indicate these ships all have spinal weapons of kinetic caliber. But from the reports and stats and readings from the _Eye of God_ , they are more like pea shooters compared to our Gauss and Giga cannons. Hell! Even our Stormfire auto-cannons pack more punch."

"Should we worry about this?"

"I'd have to see our own weapons and shields in action against them sir, but from the data we got from the science ship's captain, I think based on that, we'll be fine." Baggins gave his best and most honest reply, he was confident in their ship's superior shield technology.

"Very well then." Admiral Jorik nodded from his chair and faced the rest of the crew. "Order fleet to approach the location of those graviton disturbances. All ships prepare for a fight."

A series of _ayes_ went about the bridge as the crew got to work. The Admiral watched his men intently and couldn't help but be proud to be able to see them work so diligently to further advance the cause of the _Covenant_ and of the Holy One. He knew the Grand Marshal that served directly under the guiding hand of the Holy One but their jobs had given them little time to socialize anymore.

"Sir." The Comm officer called out. "We have managed to hack into the aliens' communications using the frequency spectrum the _Eye of God_ came into contact with and are awaiting your orders to send it back to HQ."

"Granted."

The Comm Officer pressed the send button and the data regarding the alien language was sent back to the homeworld. Minutes later confirmation came back that the translation had finished. "Sir translation has finished."

"Good. Send this message to the aliens on all channels: Our God demands the extinction of your pathetic race...and we are _His_ instruments."

* * *

 **Tunarin Military Databse. Mini-Codex**

 **Armed Forces:**

Army

10-trilllon active personnel

400-billion reservists

35-billion militia/paramilitary and colonial troops

Equipment

50-billion vehicles

20-trillion sets of armor, personal shielding and weapons

Support

500-million G-class Heavy transports and insertion vehicles

400-million mobile anti-orbital guns, heavy artillery platforms, mobile Command Centers and prefabricated bunkers

35-million gunships, fighter/bombers, UAVs, Hunter Killer Drones, Nanite Swarms, and Psionic specialists

12-million Xenomorphs, calvary and titanic beasts

 **-Military Database. Ako Denta Ul Mok.**

* * *

 **This story will remain as a one shot for now. If it reaches a certain limit of views, favs and follows then hopefully I continue it. For now it'll be a snippet, however, if you want it to go on then PM or review and I'll see what I can do. My other main stories will still be on hold as I sort them out for the time being.**

 **An upcoming Police Exam will take priority as I have to study for it. Anyways, good luck and thanks for reading this.**

 **-Danen5 Out.**


	2. Chapter 2: Gelanix Beta

**Disclaimer: I own nothing...why am I even writing this thing...isn't it a bit redundant to write this every time? You know what? I'm not gonna argue on this...oh yeah and hopefully my OCs don't mess things up too much. Don't want the Reapers to chicken out on us now, do we?**

 ***** _ **Slight changes made to this chapter with missing words and misspellings corrected. I've also changed the relationship between Nathan, Matthew and Harald making them all brothers with Harald as the eldest. Ages are: Harald 240, Matthew 140 and Nathan 135.**_

* * *

 **Turian Dreadnought...[Dear Readers, for story interaction purposes, you get to name the Turian ship]-PM me with suggestions please (Five will do-I'll pick out the one that sounds cool-ish)-**

 **Bridge**

Kreiyik Kessor, the Captain of this Dreadnought, assigned to assist Patrol Group 238 that had found a dormant relay. A relay that the same patrol group reported was over 30 kilometers long, 20 km tall and about 12 km wide. This report set the Salarians into a gleeful dance...literally, he was there and he saw a group of Salarian scientists hop around and dance to a non-existent melody.

He could have sworn he heard that inaudible tune, or maybe the 300 ships in front of him was causing him to hallucinate. He turned to a nearby ensign and asked, "Slap me."

"What?" The ensign was startled by the Captain's sudden and very inappropriate request. "Sir..."

"Captain! We're receiving a hail from the unknowns!" The Comm Officer, a Turian by the name Latoria Generius, if Kreiyik remembered from the crew manifest when he first boarded this dreadnought. It was brand new too, fresh off the assembly line so to speak.

"Is it audio?" Kreiyik inquired of the Comm officer who looked back at his holographic monitor/screen. The Captain's mandibles twitched anxiously as he waited for the Comm Officer's reply.

"Sir, its audio!"

"Play it then."

The bridge crew all strained their ears to listen to the audio from the alien ships that loomed over 110,000km from their position above the fifth planet in the Vasir system, one of the many outer rim territories within Turian Hierarchy space. The crew comprised mostly of Turians, however, there are a number of _volunteers_ from the Asari, Humans and Quarians in the fleet.

Among Kreiyik's own bridge are two humans, five Asari and a Quarian (well two actually but the other one is in engineering).

"Well where's the audi-"

The Captain was cut off when a loud BOOMING and all round intimidating voice that spoke in an almost low growl threatened to cause the speakers and several terminals to go haywire. When it spoke, everyone paused and paled instantly, or whatever passes for a pale complexion for the Turians, the humans were as white as the walls in the medbay, the Asari were suddenly a shade of blue or purple lighter than they were before and the quarian...well...no one actually knows what color the quarians' face look like since they never take off their suits! In perfect Turian the alien message played;

" **Our God demands the extinction of your pathetic race...and We are** _ **His**_ **instruments!** "

Silence reigned through the bridge as the crew looked to each other for some form of comfort or at least tell them that they didn't hear that message right. No one offered any and this caused the Captain's mandibles to open and close in rapid movement. He was unsure of what to feel...on the one hand he had a hostile alien entity declaring war on his _race_. On the other hand...well there wasn't much on the other hand besides the gnawing grim feeling of being outnumbered, possibly outgunned and hopelessly OUTNUMBERED! ' _have I mentioned that before?_ ' he screamed within his mind searching for anyone who might have an idea of what to do.

' _Crap! I'm the Captain of this ship! I'm the one who should know what to do!'_ he berated himself angrily and turned to the ensign next to him. "Ensign-"

"Sir!" The female quarian _volunteer,_ who manned the Tactical Terminal, yelled out frantically waving her arms to catch the Captain's attention. "Scans show those ships don't use eezo! But I've detected an absurd amount of energy signatures radiating off of them!"

"And how big are those ships again?" Kreiyik shuddered to think of the massive sizes of the ones farther back of the alien fleet. He was hoping his own math is wrong-

"Holy shit!" A human operator manning the Statistics terminal stared disbelievingly at his monitor. "Captain! Sir! You are not gonna believe this!"

"Stop beating around the bush, human, and spit it out!" Captain Kreiyik can never understand why these humans always had to use meaningless words...just get straight to the point is his motto...er...maybe.

"Sorry, Captain." the human crewman apologized but didn't look one bit happy to, in fact Kreiyik noticed the man was muttering something under his breath. "Well sir, the smaller ships are about the size of our cruisers...don't ask me how they can field that many cruisers but they do...then there's the obvious kicker, their dreadnoughts which outnumber the Turians own total of dreadnoughts, I think, and are on average at...dear lord...1.7km...I think...but...uh..."

"What is it?!"

"Well, Sir." The human crewman looked at his Turian superior, whom he was sure no one likes-his personal observation of fellow crew members' gossip-and gulped a sizable lump in his throat. "There are 55 super-dreadnoughts...e-e-each...each up to 3.6km..."

He didn't finish when the quarian suddenly had a fit and fainted right there on her terminal, her body hung over the side of it disrupting the electronic hologram that was her screen, which flickered on and off.

"Spirits..."

"Goddess..."

"Holy mother-of-pearl!"

"Sir! I'm picking up heat sigs from those weapon turrents mounted on the top side of those ships!" The TacOp Officer yelled out in alarm. "Shit! They're launching missiles!"

"Goddammit!" Captain Kreiyik's use of a human curse word was lost in the myriad of shouts, yells and swearing that erupted as soon as the aliens started firing. Kreiyik watched the tactical display show the lead dreadnought, at 2.2 km it was larger than the _Destiny Ascension_. ' _Why in Spirits would they need so many ships...of that SIZE?!_ ' "Send fleet wide evasive maneuvers...NOW!"

"Sir!" The Comm Officer responded with a frantic push of the holographic keypads as the order came.

' _Well...there goes my math diploma out the window..._ ' Kreiyik thought grimly as he eyed the 3D tactical display.

 **In the emptiness of Space...**

Outside, the alien cruisers had begun opening fire, they let loose a salvo of what looked to be torpedoes, missiles-the size of a civilian corvette-what the hell!, and a shitload of smaller missiles...all of which were headed in the Turian fleet's general direction.

Not wasting time...and seeing that the missiles and torpedoes would take a while to reach their lines, the Turian fleet seized upon this drawback and began maneuvering out of the missiles line of fire. Frigates darted downwards, while the cruisers and the single dreadnought deployed to reinforce Patrol Group 238, all pushed their engines into an upward thrust maneuver.

For about 15 minutes the missiles and torpedoes traversed all of 110,000 km and finally reached their targets, or where they should have been some 15 minutes ago. However, much to the surprise and horror of the Turians, the missiles and their torpedo pals suddenly twisted in an abrupt and almost impossible turn...scratch that...the hard turning maneuvers the alien projectiles made were _impossible_ to do. It would have simply caused the missiles or torpedoes to break apart due to the tremendous G-force.

But it seemed as if these things decided to defy the laws of _known_ physics! Of the fifteen frigates that were deployed (which included the two from PG-238) about seven of them were hit by torpedoes with what looked like glowing blue centers and with an incredible force that literally disintegrated them or broke them apart into several thousand pieces of space debris. Although smaller, the bunched up whirling missiles proved to be effective against the frigates' GUARDIAN point defense lasers. This left only 8 of the original 15 frigates, the rest of which scrambled to evade the remaining projectiles that their GUARDIAN laser point defense strained to bring down. Much to the chagrin and annoyance of the Turian commanders, the torpedoes and the missiles chasing their tails were actively dodging any oncoming laser attacks. A majority had been destroyed but the remainder were eagerly gaining on their acquired targets.

Four of the five cruisers (including the cruiser that had initiated First Contact) had been unable to dissuade a swarm of whirling missiles, about the size of their own disruptor torpedoes. Many of the larger missiles had proven to be just as elusive which greatly defied both the laws of physics and annoyed/scared the hell out of the GUARDIAN point defense operators. When the first of these large projectiles hit their target, a cruiser, it had exploded into a great fireball of nuclear radiation and death. The cruiser was literally torn apart and melted down along with their crew complement. A lot of good men and women were killed by just one alien missile.

"These bastards are using WMDs!" The TacOp Officer onboard the Turian dreadnought screamed at the top of his voice, his mandibles flared open in anger and disgust, as well as horror. A mixture of fear and adrenaline causing his emotions to rise and fall in a cascading torrent of hate and anger...as well as apprehension and exhaustion.

True enough, three other cruisers went down...or up? in similar fashion as their GUARDIAN defenses were overwhelmed by the smaller swarming missiles and then the larger ones connected with a zealous vengeance as it tore through hull and crew and then proceeded to explode in a fiery display of orange, red and yellow. The scanners nearly broke due to the sheer amount of nuclear radiation it was picking up from the explosions. The debris were nothing more than charred and molten slags of metal with no discernible signs of their crew. Many a man or woman hung their heads in defeat at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

They hadn't even managed to get within effective weapons range and here were the aliens soundly beating them without even suffering any losses to themselves...except for the ordinances the Turians managed to shoot down with their point defense lasers. Captain Kreiyik gave the general order to retreat, to his remaining ships, all of which engaged their short range FTL to jump to the other side of the system, within a 100,000 km of the other (smaller) relay.

 **My Apartment**

 **0610 hrs**

I just can't believe it...

I mean...I'm watching my ships totally fucking up the Turian fleet and destroying more than half their ships. I...I'm speechless. Granted I had 300 ships, most of which are destroyers and cruisers, but to see the Turians not even putting up much of a fight. Man that's kind of a serious let down. To be honest I expected them to actually destroy or wound at least two or maybe five of my destroyers but seeing them being soundly beaten to the curb? That's almost as bad as when the Europeans colonized the Americas in the 1600s.

What the Fuck man?! What kinda update is this?!

...

You know what? fuck it.

I'm just gonna enjoy it while it lasts. So the Turians are...what the-holy shit! Did they just?! Yeah they did! Those cheating fucks! They actually...that actually worked...so their sublight engine FTL capabilities work just like they do in Mass Effect. Hmm...I wonder if I can replicate that...okay...seeing as how the situation log has been updated with _debris recovery_ missions, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope I can research Element Zero technology.

Huh. The 1st Fleet is just sitting there...oh well, I looked at the computer monitor and found the submenu on the right hand side, scrolling down on it I found the card for the first fleet and selected it. I know I can just click on the fleet but I like to...take a more...uh...dramatic, yes thats it, a more dramatic (if somewhat long) route.

Hehehe...I sure taught those Turians a lesson they'll never forget.

I clicked on the _set stance_ button and switched it from _passive_ to _aggressive._ Now the _Holy Pacifier_ will attack any unknown vessels that enter the system. Maybe I should reinforce them...how about the 4th and 12th fleets? Yep, _Holy Martyr_ and _Holy Shit_ are the ideal choice for reinforcing this system which is...funnily enough named, _Galenix Beta._ I wonder who comes up with these names?

Now where are my science ships?

Oh wait...I think I'll send in the _Eye of God_ , after all it wouldn't sit well with Dr. Kodiak if I give _his_ find to some other aspiring science officer...hehehe...man, just thinking about it like this makes me wonder if the characters are even alive.

Pfff...as if.

*dundundun*

 **Captain Harald (POV)**

" _Captain_?" Comm Officer's tired and sleepy voice, came over Harald's personal communicator. " _We've just received new orders, sir_."

"Did you just wake up?" The Captain asked his subordinate, there was a long pause on the other end of the line before the Comm officer answered...in a more sober voice.

" _No, sir. I woke up two hours ago...its the migraine I'm getting that's really bothering me. Its actually making me more sleepy than I would have hoped_."

"Very well. I did warn you that you'd have one hell of a hangover from those _Killian Booze,_ that alcohol is _not_ for the faint of heart." Harald chuckled as he remembered the young Communications Officer adamantly demanding his superior officer to bring out his stash of some of the most well aged and fine alcoholic beverages. A well-known secret...one which the Captain actively denies exists, until there's a party to be had. "All that aside, what are our new orders?"

" _That's the thing, sir. Uh...well, the Grand Marshal himself called me up when I arrived at my station. He gave me a priority Alpha-X5 package_."

"A what?" Captain Harald fell off of his chair at the mention of such an important delivery. Only the most sensitive and very dangerous missions are given to science ships during wartime with those last two designations. X5. "Are you certain?"

" _Yes, sir. Is-is this what I t-think it is, sir_?"

"I don't know. I'm on my way to the ship. Contact Dr. Kodiak and the rest of the crew and have them report to the Cargo Bay assembly area, ASAP!" Harald put on his dress blues with the signature military gold trimmings and a few medals hung from his right breast pocket, personally put there by the Grand Marshal himself during the war against the avian xenos two hundred years ago. He had retired after the war...hoping for a less _exciting life_. ' _Get a civilian job they said, it pays well they said, it's safe they said!_ ' yeah right!

His third year into the job and he's getting his ass shot at by frigging aliens...all over again! He is seriously considering rejoining the navy, heck, with his prior experience in commanding ships, he'll likely be made Admiral! ' _You know what? I think I just might take myself up on that offer.'_ He smiled at this line of thought and was seriously considering it, ' _Okay, if all goes well on this next mission, I'm re-enlisting with the Navy._ ' He made up his mind, just as he finished dressing up and exiting his apartment.

He lived in one of the many rented living spaces on board the _Marlin_ Spaceport, which is in geosynchronous orbit with the military stronghold, _Keep_. The planet itself is located five stars away from the Galenix system where a heavy military presence had sprung up and one of the desert worlds there, the fourth one from the red giant sun, is in the process of being terraformed.

Immediately hailing a mono-rail cab, he was whisked away at mach 13, across the midsection of the spaceport towards the more militarized area. Here he found his way to the elevators which zoomed upwards, downwards then sideways to reach his _final destination_. The elevator doors opened up to reveal a disheveled Captain Harald, his slicked back hair in a tangled mess and his uniform blues all crunched up, while his face was plastered with red lipstick.

A young woman, a stunning blonde, who was similarly dressed in a Captain's uniform albeit not so messed up as her male counterpart, walked out of the elevator with a satisfied smile on her lips. Her bright red lipstick was smeared to the right side of her mouth so she carefully wiped it clean, along with the little bit of white creamy substance that stuck to her fair and smooth skin.

Harald patted himself down and quickly rearranged his appearance before leaving the elevator, which was kind enough to wait while he did this, the Captain walked out and looked around the large hangar bay for his ship. He needed no longer look than a few more meters before his eyes settled on the angular and rectangular shaped ship that bore the name _Eye of God._

"Ah...ain't she a beauty!" He admired his ship for a moment, taking in the view before the same female Captain walked by from behind him. He yelped in surprise as the blonde reached down and squeezed his right butt cheek. "Damn it, Steph! Don't do that!"

"Aww...wittle kwapten can't take a wittle squeeze?" She pouted playfully as she quickly leaned in close and pecked at his cheek. "See ya later lover boy! I'm off for a new assignment."

"Wait!" Captain Harald recovered from his stunned trance, calling out to the blonde Captain, Steph, full name being Stephanie Mazdik, daughter of the famed Ace Pilot, Rosela Carabiner-Mazdik (who bagged over 1200 kills during the war 200 years ago). He envied her mother's status but such thoughts are not to be acted upon for they corrupt the _Covenant_. "What new assignment?"

"You didn't hear?!" Stephanie cupped her hands from about a 100 yards out and yelled back at him, "It's official! We're going to war! Whoo!"

' _No way..._ ' Captain Harald Vandersen's thin lips formed an evil grin as he thought his chances of becoming Admiral were that much closer now that hostilities had been declared...though the aliens hadn't _officially_ done so, but that didn't matter to the Holy One. Once that big guy makes up his mind...whoever or whatever he is, he'll see it through to the end. The _Covenant_ wouldn't have made it this far into their spacefaring history without his continued support. Of course there were periods of time when the Holy One would be absent but in that time, he/it, would leave a set of instructions to the Grand Marshal and trust him to carry out his duty to the best extents of his ability.

"Sir." His TacOp Officer greeted him at the airlock with a swift salute. "All hands are on deck and the good doctor is inside on the bridge awaiting your arrival."

"Great..." Harald muttered gravely as he thought of the time he would spend with that _idiot_ , a smart idiot but an idiot nonetheless. "Fine. Do we have enough supplies for the trip?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Where's the helmsman?"

"Over here, sir!" The high-pitched yell coming from behind the Captain revealed it to be the aforementioned helmsman, who looked like he'd just gotten out of bed. He arrived and quickly did a salute, executed with the exact military precision taught in all military institutions throughout the Imperial Covenant. However, there was something odd about the way the young man _glowed_...

*sniff*

"Is that women's 38' Granger D-9 I smell, helmsman?" Harald scowled at his subordinate who cringed in fear and unconsciously stepping backwards.

"Y-y-yess, sir?" The nervousness in the young helmsman's voice was not lost on the Captain who simply glared at him before relaxing his facial muscles and smirked.

"No hard feelings, helmsman..."

"Fred, sir." The young fellow supplied.

"Right. Well don't take it so hard. I was just messing with ya." The Captain patted Fred on his back in a friendly...more like brotherly gesture. Then with a wink he grinned at the poor kid and said, "Seriously though, try and keep it in your pants when you're still technically on duty."

"O-of course, s-sir!" Fred saluted and nodded gratefully. The TacOp Officer watched the exchange with a questioning look on his face, he wasn't sure whether to leave first or just watch it play out so when the Captain visibly relaxed, so did he. _Phew_.

All three men entered via the airlock as it slid to the side and let them in to the decontamination chamber, a few seconds and the green lights turned on. Another set of bulkhead doors slid open and they entered the bridge. The ship itself was small but it was large enough for their purposes.

"Ah. Captain Vandersen." The cheery voice of the good Dr. Kodiak, reached Harald's ears and he blanched. "Good to _see_ you again. Although I would have preferred Captain Mazdik for this op."

A glare was thrown to the science officer and he felt like he was about to die but shrugged it off, he was too important to kill….yet and cleared his throat. "Now, now. I was just joking. However, the gravity of this mission is such that we need to be very fast in getting to our destination. The Alpha-X5 is to be given the highest priority and should we fail..."

He let that hang in the air for the moment and anyone who was within earshot felt a cold shiver down their spines at the thought of being _offed_ for failing a mission. One thing the _Covenant_ hated more than disgusting non-humanlike aliens was failure. Over the course of their rough and very turbulent history, the _Covenant_ had executed 8000 officers of various ranks, 900,000 thousand soldiers of various ranks, decommissioned over 4 million vehicles that were found to be _at fault_ (i.e. malfunctioning or missing some parts or didn't want to start at all...or the well-known excuse; _"we ain't got no fuel"_ ), a few scientists (though not many were outright executed, rather they were simply _retired_ ), and in one case, which Harald found to be utterly ridiculous, the brass was unsatisfied with the performance of one their few Titanic Beasts.

Of course that last one was promptly scrapped by the Holy One who saw no reason to blame the poor beast when it had _accidentally_ stepped on its handler...er...commanding officer.

"Let's just not dwell on that thought though...bad for health." Dr. Kodiak added and turned around to leave but stopped, "Ah, yes. You called for an assembly in the Cargo bay...I'm afraid there simply isn't enough room there so we'll have to make do with the PA system."

Harald snapped out of his thoughts and nodded absentmindedly, he walked over to his chair while the Fred and the TacOp Officer went to their respective terminals. The Captain sat down and asked whilst looking to his Comm Officer. "Prepare a ship wide broadcast, Comm Officer Rodeo."

"Aye, sir." Rodeo nodded slowly mentally kicking himself as another sharp pang of pain slammed the side of his head but he groaned quietly and soldiered on. "You're on the air, Captain."

"Alright people." Harald began, "Last time we were out there, we got shot at. Luckily for us, ol' _Goddy_ , is a mighty great protector and its thanks to her efforts and those of our engineering crew and our pilot that we got out of that mess alive." * _Crew cheers in the background_ * "Alright, settle down. But now we've been called upon once more to serve as the hand of the Holy One and this time its a priority mission entrusted to us to carry out efficiently and as quickly as we can. It'll be dangerous but now, at least, we have our flyboys in the Navy to look out for us. That is all, now lets get out there and bag us some alien tech! Whoo!"

The bridge crew gave out cheers and patts on the back as they applauded. They were all happy they hadn't died during their previous mission and with the ship repaired they were once more called to breach the unknown. Dr. Leon Kodiak didn't partake in the celebrations but he did listen and thought the Captain's speech was crap. Of course, he wasn't going to let the man know that. Instead he looked over from where he usually sat, the Science terminal to the Captain's left side and spoke.

"That was an inspiring speech you made, Captain Vandersen." A crooked smirk escaping before he could stop it.

"Fuck you, Kodiak." Harald gave the science officer the finger before turning his attention to the helmsman. "Fred, get us underway...easy does it, we don't want to scratch the new paint job. Otherwise, the mechanics and the engineers might tears us a new one."

"Aye, sir. Being careful of the paint job." Fred blurted out with a cheeky grin but then had to duck to avoid a slap to the head from the Chief Engineer who was on the bridge and happened to be passing by the helmsman's terminal on his way to the Engineering deck.

The ship lurched abruptly to the left causing Harald to yell out in alarm, "FRED!"

"Sorry, sir!"

"Just...focus." Harald grumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, if the kid wasn't one of the best pilots in the science fleet, he'd had send his ass to the outer colonies to dig manure.

The science ship departed from the space station and as soon as it reached the edge of the system, it disappeared in a flash of white light.

 **Aboard the Flagship** _ **Pacifier**_

 **Bridge**

Admrial Jorik was fuming with disappointment. He had hoped this new race would prove a distraction from the boring fights he conducted against the usual space borne beasts, most notably the Crystalline and void entities, pirates and rebellious colonies. But he was sorely disappointed by this race's lack of adequate response to his first volley of missiles and torpedoes. ' _Okay, so maybe we outnumbered them...and outgunned them...and basically outsized them. But still! To fail that utterly? We must be dealing with a rather primitive race here, then again, all of their ships had spinal mounts..most of them with a moderate number of turrets but they're mostly for anti-fighter and anti-missile platforms with a small number dedicated as mainstream gun batteries..._ '

He was so deep in contemplation that he did not see the holographic form of another wizened and aged man in dress blues that had more decorations than one could count. The hologram waited patiently but was visibly becoming irritated with the lack of attention he was getting from the Admiral.

Communications Officer Liam Terrence, just over 100 years old and one of the youngest to have made Comm Officer, looked over to the Admiral then to the hologram and then back at the Admiral. He wasn't sure whether or not to tell the Admiral that he had a priority holo-conference with the Grand Marshal but Admiral Jorik had given him strict orders not to disturb him under _any_ circumstances so...

" _JOHANN GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS_!" The Grand Marshall shouted out at his fellow senil-senior, which caused the good Admiral to go rigid and then turn around slowly.

"Er...who are you again?"

" _Don't even try the '_ I'm old and senile _' card! It won't work!"_ The hologram growled and glared at Jorik who seemed to get the memo and stopped pretending. A serious look crept up and took hold of his expression.

"Sorry, sir. Won't happen again." Admiral Jorik saluted and stood at ease, feet apart and relaxed his shoulders. "What do I owe this visit?"

" _The Holy One has left instructions for you to position your ships near that smaller Relay. You are to shoot anything that comes out of that station._ " The Grand Marshal informed the Admiral who looked thoughtful, if instructions are left then the Holy One must be busy but he is sure he can handle any problem that comes at him. Then he thought of something else.

"Sir, if I may ask..."

" _Go ahead._ "

"You called the Station a Relay?"

" _I don't know how I know it but I do...right, we can't keep calling those damned things_ stations _so I'm making it official. We'll use_ relays _from now on, understood?_ "

"Crystal, sir." Jorik nodded but then thought of something, "Sir...if I may be bold as to say that...it would be better to inform of the Science Department of the new name for these massive stations."

...

"Sir?"

" _Don't you have a job to do?_ "

Jorik nodded and saluted as the hologram disappeared. He glared over at Terrence and stomped to the man's terminal. "Why didn't you inform me that the Grand Marshal was trying to communicate with me?"

"Sir, you gave me _strict_ orders not to disturb you. I told the Grand Marshal as such and he assured me that I leave you alone." Terrence explained, silently praying to the Holy One that the Admiral doesn't throw him out the airlock.

"What did he say exactly?" Still glaring, Jorik waited for the trembling communications officer's reply who was starting to sweat waterfalls.

"I-I-I-he-h-h-he t-t-told m-me that it was f-fine and that he wanted to see the l-l-look on your f-f-face when you t-t-turned around...s-s-sir." Terrence was stammering profusely and his knees were shaking so bad he had to grab onto the sides of his terminal to prevent himself from collapsing.

The entire crew on the bridge were expecting a verbal storm of shouts and curses but instead they visibly relaxed when the old man they all knew as the _Vault Breaker_ , for his mission against the giant space vault and its fearsome defenses (which took out four fleets and took about ten fleets to break through-with the 1st Fleet suffering heavy casualties except for Jorik's ship which dealt the final and decisive blow), started laughing in his usual baritone voice which reached its peak and he settled down.

"Ha! That old codger still has some pranks left in him...but he lost it now!" Jorik continued laughing as he returned to his chair and sat down on it causing it to bounce slightly. He saw his crew looking at him like he was crazy and with a smirk he simply said in an exaggerated and dramatic voice, "What?!"

Nobody dared say anything and quietly averted their eyes from their somewhat _eccentric_ admiral. Most of them knew what he was like at times, but others were shocked and mentally scarred by this. They hoped a few weeks of therapy will erase their memory of that event, poor Terrence might have to go through five months worth of therapy to get over this.

 **Outside in space...**

The 300 ships, cruisers, destroyers and battleships, that made up the 1st Fleet/ _Holy Pacifier_ , slowly lumbered through the void and headed towards the smaller fork shaped station on the other end of the system. A new name for the stations was radioed in from HQ and the new term to refer to these stations was _Relay_.

Moments later they reached their destination and set up just 50,000 km from the relay. Reports flooded in that a science ship, the same one that had been attacked in this very system, had arrived through the other more larger relay and was requesting an escort.

A destroyer was ordered to break off from the main formation and it headed back to the other end of the system to rendezvous with the _Eye of God_. It took a few hours to reach there in cruising speed but there weren't any nearby threats so that was a plus.

The captain of the science ship thanked the destroyer's CO and both ships proceeded to where the alien debris were located, near the fifth planet. The Gelanix Beta system had six planets, with the first one being a molten planet of magma and lava but the second and third planets were nothing more than toxic and barren wastelands while the fourth and sixth planets were gas giants. The fifth planet was surprisingly a pristine Gaia world.

Already there were plans being put into play to send in a colony ship to begin construction of a shipyard and a military colony on the planet, it will be turned into a military stronghold and act as a forward operating base to launch a new crusade into this galaxy.

Now that was something that was hard to swallow. Most of the crew of the fleet had nearly went insane when their scanners kept on scanning and scanning and scanning and...you get the point...their surroundings trying to determine where they were in the galaxy. It was around this time when they discovered that they were in a whole new galaxy and it was infinitely way bigger than their own.

If what the sensors were picking up is true then this galaxy had hundreds of thousands of stars...however, the scientists back home were in a state of controlled panic when the data came in that the scanners were still picking up new star systems within the new galaxy.

By the third day they had arrived in Gelanix Beta, over 2 million stars had been detected, and by the fifth day, just a little over 10 million was picked up and the sensors were still counting. It's become a common sight to see scientists faint after reading the new data, most had become used to it while others just couldn't help but feel weak at the knees. Why! Just yesterday the scanning had reached a 50 million and still sprinting forward like it was a marathon!

Two weeks in and the colony ship had arrived with its contingent of skilled engineers, miners, scholars, scientists, geologists, environmentalists...a whole lot of other -ists. The shipyard had begun construction as well and the system had received two additional fleets for security, the 4th and 12th fleets (known respectively as _Holy Martyr_ and _Holy Shit_ ), with 900 ships in the system the new colony/FOB was as secure as one could get.

 **My Apartment...**

 **0700 hrs**

Crap! I have work tomo-oh wait, its the weekend. Sheesh...man I thought I was a goner!

But seriously, I've been sitting here for nearly 3 hours, I had to go to the little men's room for a bit, but so far nothing has happened. However, I do have to say that I'm starting to notice some strange things occurring while playing.

For one, when I ordered the 1st Fleet to attack the Turians, my Battleships hadn't tried to engage first, instead the cruisers, specifically my _Javelin_ and _Torpedo_ classes, moved forward and began loosing salvo after salvo of missiles and torpedoes. The destroyers didn't move an inch and just sat there as if waiting for something.

My battleships hadn't even so much as fired their long range Giga Cannons! I watched them sit there on their asses without ever firing off a single shot and instead waited while the missiles reached their targets. I tried clicking on the fleet and then right clicking on the Turians but the fleet didn't respond, only so far just letting my cruisers engage with their missiles and torpedoes and I'm glaring at my screen as if the thing had broken.

After a while I just let them be. However, if I didn't know any better then I would say the damn admiral had gained a mind of his own...pffft, yeah right!

I look at the time and see that its nearing half past seven so I decide to call it a day and saved the game. I watched as the thing finished saving then I opened the menu and selected exit game. The screen blinked and the game vanished to be replaced by my desktop save screen, a black knight standing in front of a ruined castle with his back to me and his head pointing upwards to the sky. He was on his knees with an arrow to his back. Poor sod. Then again...it looks cool the way he seemed to just stand there as if thinking of all the things he had done up to that point in his life...crap...I'm sliding off topic.

*sigh*

I turned off my computer and yawned. I really need to sleep but I guess I can continue playing later...you know...when I wake up.

 **Few minutes later...in bed...**

After coming out of the bathroom and feeling slightly refreshed from that bath, I change into my pajamas...what?...and slopped down on my very comfortable queen size bed. It is very comfy and I doubt there is anyone else who has anything like it.

Er...not that I'm bragging or anything.

*sigh*

You know what I'm going to bed...

Closing my eyes I began dreaming... _well that was quick_...I was in a bedroom... _go figure_...I was just waking up... _weird_...oh well might as well as enjoy it.

 **Inside somebody's bedroom**

A man stirred on the queen sized bed that he had told friends was the most comfortable bed in the whole galaxy, he bragged how it would get him to sleep almost instantly every time he got on it. He even bragged that its gotten him laid on more than one occasion, this little bit of information was met with skeptical stares and sniggering. He proved them wrong of course when he provided home videos, which he assured them was done with the consent of the women he slept with, and showed them to his skeptical friends. That shut them up fast.

A groan and a hand grabbed his head, the man slowly sat up in his bed and made to get out only to be stopped when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to bed.

"Don't go just yet..." a feminine voice begged flirtatiously as a woman revealed herself from underneath the blankets and snuggled up the man's bare back. Her breasts firmly grounding themselves against him as he stiffened and turned his head back. His eyes widened when he saw who was in bed with.

For her part, the woman opened her eyes, long eye lashes fluttering, but suddenly her own eyes widened as it dawned on her who it was that she was cuddling. "NATHAN! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!" She screamed in his ears causing him to cover them.

"Your room?!" He yelled back rubbing both ears. "In case you haven't noticed! This is MY room!"

She looked around and realized he was right but then glared at him and kicked him forcibly off of the bed and covered her chest with the blankets. "Oh! You are so dead! When I tell daddy about this, you're going to pay!"

"The fuck!" Nathan exclaimed as he stood up from the cold floor and shot a glare at the woman. ' _Who was she to kick me off of my own bed_?! _Oh right...she's Admiral Johann Jorik's granddaughter...oh man did I mess up_!'

"Don't point that thing at me!" She shrieked as she covered her eyes when Nathan's manhood was swinging around with every movement he made. His face went red and he grabbed a pillow to cover himself with. "Aarrgghh! Get out and let me change!"

"Hey! You get out and let me change!" He retorted angrily but a glare from her and he bolted out the bedroom. The door slid shut and locked behind him. "Great! Just fucking great!"

"Hey bro." Nathan glanced over to his left and down the hall he saw his brother, Matthew, looking at him with a jackass grin. "See you and Matilda still can't hold your liquor."

"Oh Holy One. Please don't tell me it happened again." Nathan moaned as he thought back to that party he attended. It quickly spiraled out of control and pretty soon everything was black...next thing he knows he's in his bed with Matilda Jorik of all women! ' _Why me_?!' he stared up at the ceiling in a melodramatic pose with both arms held up. His pillow fell and Matthew looked away yelling at him.

"Damn it, Bro! Get some pants on...you're fucking disgusting!"

"Says the guy who ran around the city naked!" Nathan quipped snarkily at his brother who cringed and glared daggers at him.

"That was ONE time!"

"Whatever-" the door to his room slid open and the slender body of Matilda barreled out crashing into Nathan and both of them falling on the floor with Nathan landing on his back while she fell on top of him, her chest cushioning his _handle_ and the tip coming up to her lips.

"Awkwaard." Matthew stated and turned away from them heading towards the kitchen downstairs. Nathan and Matilda both got up quickly with Matilda landing two quick punches in the man's abdomen.

He doubled over and coughed. "The hell was that for?"

"That was for fucking me without my permission...again!" She screamed at him and kicked him in the groin. Causing him to squeal an unmanly scream as he dropped to the ground and moaned as the pain traveled through his lower body.

She stopped at the stairs and angrily declared, "You're DEAD, Nathan Vandersen! You hear me?! DEAD! D.E.D! DEAD!"

When the woman was well and truly gone, Nathan not sensing her unique thought patterns, he let out a low grumble as the words escaped his lips, "You spelled _dead,_ wrong, you illiterate bitch...arrgghh...damn that fucking hurts!"

"You okay there bro?" Matthew's voice called from downstairs. "Bro, you still alive?!"

"Fuck you, Matty!" Nathan spat out as he picked himself off the ground and groggily and painfully entered his room and went to the bathroom. There he opened the dispenser and got out an ice pack for his aching and bruised balls. "I am so not drinking around her again."

 **Few minutes later...**

"Hey bro." Matthew greeted his younger brother as Nathan stepped into the kitchen. "You heard about the new war right?"

Nathan nodded.

"Did you also hear that Harald's ship was nearly blown to Holy One's kingdom come?"

Nathan paused as he was reaching into the fridge to grab the carton of _Melok_ milk, he turned to look at Matthew with an expression that says _Don't bullshit me dude_ but Matthew just stared at him with a grim look.

"You serious?" Matthew nodded, "And when did you hear about this?"

"When the war was officially announced. He called me up and told me about what had happened." Matthew explained as he gobbled up two _Vatalan_ fried eggs and a _Leton_ (sort of like bacon).

"Why didn't the government inform us about that?"

"You know those bureaucrats won't lift a finger until a superior tells them what to do...they're fucking clueless!" The older brother pointed out as he waved his hands around to emphasize his point.

"Point taken." Nathan grabbed his carton of milk and poured himself a glass. The milk was a thick creamy green substance that is native to the animal of their planet, the creature was a hulking 10m tall and has enough milk and meat to sustain a single town for a month. He downed the glass in one go and exhaled, "So while I was off getting my ass drunk and somehow ending up bedding Matilda for the sixth time, ol' _Harry_ was being shot at?"

Matthew looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded, but he decided to voice a question that's been bothering him for a while now. "You've been in bed with that crazy _detano_ (their native tongue equivalent of _bitch_ )for six times now?"

"Yeah...oh no! We are NOT talking about that! Next subject!"

"Okay..." Matthew wasn't expecting that response but seeing as how his brother was acting and pouting like a child he decided to switch topics. "Have the results for your application to Psionics division come out yet?"

"Now that you mention it..." Nathan pulled up his neural link interface (referred to as NeLI) and mentally thought of the page he wanted before it showed up. Matthew cannot see what his brother was viewing, not without accessing his own NeLI, so he waited patiently before Nathan smiled from ear to ear and began talking in an excited tone. "Dude! I'm in! I'm officially in!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!" Nathan began jumping up and down as he did a little victory dance (AN: think of the victory dance from that movie _Evan Almighty_ ).

"Bro! Cut that out!" Matthew protested when his brother was doing that weird dance he does when he gets overly excited. "Seriously, bro, cut it out! Its fucking creepy!"

"I'm going to ignore that." Nathan sneered at his older brother but was too excited to actually be hurt by that comment. "You are now looking at the newest mid-tier officer of the 5th Psionic Commandos under the direct command of Jalen Mazdik himself."

"So you get to be bossed around by your idol, big deal." Matthew scoffed playfully but Nathan ignored his quip and proceeded to wolf down his own two eggs and _Leton._ "When do you think you'll deploy...we're going to war now so the 5th Psionic Commandos will be attached to whatever army that will be formed as part of the Expeditionary force."

"I don't know...we'll see when it happens." Nathan shrugged and drank another glass of _Melok_ green milk. "I've got my orders to show up at the Psionic barracks for further assessments before I'm assigned to the 5th PCs. What about you?"

For a moment, Matthew was shocked, he had totally forgotten that he was also in the military. Navy to be exact and was in command of a Cruiser, the _Wild Beast_. At age 140, he was the youngest in military history to have command of a Cruiser, beating Admral Johann Jorik's own record of 151 years. He looked back at his brother who was pouring another glass of milk before a single thought opened his connection with NeLI.

He accessed the Navy's Classified Database and entered his LOGIN and PASSWORD. After a pause the neural screen dematerialized and another one materialized in its place. It listed Matthew's ship information and beneath the ship's name was a red flag, marking it as an urgent message. He opened it and his eyes went wide.

"What is it?" Nathan asked curiously.

"Shit!" Matthew cursed and quickly got up from his chair. He rushed up the stairs in record time and a few minutes later he came back down dressed in his blues. "Sorry bro! Gotta go, orders came in, I have to get to my ship! My fleet departs in 30 minutes!"

Nathan watched as his brother disappeared through their front door and it closed. He went back to the kitchen and returned their plates and cups to the sink rinsing them before setting them aside for when the maid would come on shift and begin clearing the house. He sighed and opened his NeLI and saw that his own set of urgent messages had come in. The first one told him that he no longer needed to go for assessment. While the last one was an order to pack his stuff up and report for immediate departure to the 5th PCs HQ on _Pelak_ , a planet two hundred systems away from his home planet, Yesif.

"Great...just great..." He muttered to himself as he began packing up his essentials and leaving a message for the maid to take care of the house while they were gone. This brought back painful memories of his mother...' _No don't think about that_!'

He growled and left his house. It looked like all the others in the suburban neighborhood. Three stories high and cream white colored. A front lawn and a backyard with a pool. Very generic but then that's just fine with him...and everyone else.

Setting off into the sunset he smiled and wondered what kind of adventures will he be faced with during this new war.

 **Somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy**

 **(-Its around 7pm in Real world for our gamer guy-)**

 **In a dimly lit room on a large space station...**

"Are you sure they haven't found it yet?" A female voice filled with concern, dread and frustration, asked to one of the dark figures in the room, sitting across from her at the table.

"Yes. Preliminary scans and tests indicate this species does not invest much in spying or stealth technology for that matter." The voice that replied was distinctly male but it was higher pitched and talked very fast. "Indicates that they don't need such devices if they're flaunting around that many warships in one system. Will be their downfall."

"Why haven't we send in an attack fleet yet?" Another more angrier voice joined the other two. It sounded metallic but firm and strong. It was also male. "These new aliens attacked and destroyed nearly half of Patrol Group 238 and the ships sent to reinforce them. Why do we have to sit here and do nothing?"

"Calm yourself." The female voice spoke with a calmness that belied her frustration, "Acting without first acquiring the necessary information may result in more unnecessary deaths."

A quiet pause gripped the atmosphere as the three dark figures momentarily took a breath. Then continued.

"What else have your spy satellites have picked up?" The woman asked.

"We cannot send it any further into the system, too risky, but we've picked up signs of a colony that has sprung up on the fifth planet...a garden world."

"One that we had plans for colonization." The metallic voice growled in an angry tone as the person it belonged to watched the orange holographic screen play out the scene of several large ships patrolling above said garden world.

"Our initial scans and readings from the First Contact survivors show these aliens don't use element zero on any of their ships." the snappy voice pointed out. This elicited a gasp from the other two.

"Not possible!" the metallic voice declared. "Everything in the galaxy is based on element zero! These aliens must be very primitive if they're not using it on their ships!"

"I must agree with...er...what was that?" the female voice faltered as she caught sight of something in the video.

"Ah. You noticed it?" the high pitched voice sounded gleeful when the woman had been able to pick up what his operatives pointed out to him earlier.

"Goddess..."

"What are you-Spirits! How-how is that even possible?!"

"I have no idea!" the snappy high pitched voice said as they all watched the skeleton of the shipyard suddenly become whole and then began adding several other parts in quick and rapid succession. Finally, it stopped and from it starships began pouring out at an impossible rate.

Whoever...or whatever these aliens were...they were a force to be reckoned with.

"All in favor of removing restrictions on the number of ships we can field?" The metallic voice offered. His spirits lifted when the other two affirmed to his proposal. "Very well then...I'll talk to the Primarch about this."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Danen5 here with the end of this, a second part, for all of you. Thank you all so much for taking the time to tell me to write a second chapter for this story and let me thank again for the reviews, favs and follows...its been hectic for me since I recently sat for the 2nd round of Police Examinations...have I mentioned that already?**

 **Nevermind. What I really wanted to say was:**

 **How was this chapter? Was it satisfactory? Is it too much? Or less? I seriously cannot tell since I wrote this while dru-er-somber? Ah! Crap!**

 **Seriously though, give me your thoughts on this and if you have any suggestions then feel free to PM or review. If you see anything that can be improved then tell me about it and also I want to ask you dear readers a question that is important for the continuation of this story if you so demand it.**

 **Question is:**

 **I have not yet decided which part of the ME trilogy to set it in. So now I humbly ask for your valued opinions dear readers.**

 **Which Mass Effect (whether 1,2 or 3) should I set this story in?**

 **There I have broached the question. Now it is up to you guys to decide on which one. Please review or PM me with your suggestions...although reviewing is preferred since I can track the number from there.**

 **-Danen5 Out!**


	3. Meet the Family-A Filler

**AN: Well hello there again dear readers. I am truly honored by you all. This is kinda like a milestone for this story, with 45 favs, 70 follows and 2000 reads, I can truly say that I am thankful and hope this story lives up to my expectations and yours. Anyways here is a filler for those who have just read this story, just until your suggestions and opinions have all been submitted to where I can continue this further along. I've got plenty of ideas that I want to try out but I'll wait for all of you dear readers since you're the ones who wanted this thing to continue...your demands will be met...to the best of my ability.  
**

 **Disclaimer: Nothing of ME or Stellaris belongs to me, they belong to their respective owners. I have never once thought of** ** _borrowing_** **them.**

 **Note: For those of you who had suggested the names for the Turian Dreadnought, I thank you for them. I've actually got some pretty cool ones too and I can't decide which one to use, but I'll pick one and put in later in the next chapter. You sir who suggested the name will know. And for the other names, well I'll be using them for other Turian ships as well, don't worry all of the names will be credited to you all.**

 **Any ideas you guys have and which may be implemented will be accredited to you and so forth. Because, after all what the mass wants the mass gets...most of the time.**

 **Also, this is the result of the suggestions for when to set this story in Mass Effect:**

 **(Small Update for this-A new Contender and it seems ME1 is in the lead!)**

 **Pre-ME1: 2  
**

 **ME1: 6  
**

 **ME2: 1**

 **Between ME2 &3: 1**

 **ME3: 0**

 **Please keep those suggestions coming and until one of these five reaches 10 the Setting of the story will remain undecided until such a time when one of those five reaches the max. (So far M1 is leading by...well...a large margin)  
**

 **Important Notice: Thank you all for your reviews and I thank whoever that was who gave me the name of the FoZ/ZnT story that inspired this story of mine. It's titled: The Construct by RedDesertPhoenix...for those who have asked me about it well there it is! I've fav and followed now! Take that old brain o' mine! Try forgetting that now! In other news...  
**

 **Anyways let us get this story underway. This is just a filler chapter to wait for the results of the above mentioned suggestion-thingy.**

 **To:**

 **All of you who have suggested the time to set this get go I thank you for your participation and hopefully we find a winner by the end of the week. Thank you again. Now...  
**

* * *

 **My Apartment**

 **Sunday, 2017.**

 **0800 hrs**

Today I woke up feeling a little weird. I had been having strange dreams lately. Mostly its blurry and inconsistent but I feel like I was actually there and felt the things that I felt in that dream. I managed to make out most of what I saw in the dream but when I woke up I begin to gradually forget what it was I was dreaming about.

I vaguely remember an apartment bedroom of some kind, but it was dimly lit and dark, there was a light in there but even that was very dim and almost blinking out. Then there was a scream and I felt as if my ears would explode but I saw black from there only to feel an excruciating pain coming from my crotch. I woke up then and grabbed my nuts!

It was a crazy dream but I had shrugged it off. Except last night as I had finished speeding up the construction of the Gelanix Beta Colony, which I named _Breach_ , and then typing in _instant_build_ I selected several power plants, mineral mines and farms (I know they have their own names but I like to call them that). From there it was a simple thing to build military buildings on the planet surface tiles that were devoid of any resources and then typed in _add_population_ instantly populating all of the empty surface tiles with the buildings already built on them.

As soon as that was done I upgraded all of the power plants, farms and mineral mines so that they can yield a higher output of resources and surplus foodstuffs. I turned my attention to the shipyard and instant build all of its modules and looking at my ship cap I see that I still have some room for more ships. Thus was the 51st Fleet or _Holy Breach_ was born. I decided upon instant building 200 corvettes, 75 destroyers, 22 cruisers and 3 battleships.

I assigned a man by the name Harald Vandersen, who was among the five candidates available for recruitment. The reason I chose him was because he had a 4 star rating whilst the other had only 3. His traits included _Eager, Cautious,_ and Gale _Speed._ I think he'll be the man for the job seeing as how most of the ships under his command are corvettes, which consists mostly of _Annoyance_ class.

Not wanting to think about the game for now, I proceeded to bathe then dress up and finally made my way to the kitchen. A simple one, its not much but its what makes my apartment home. I thought back to Friday night and laughed just a little remembering what had happened. When I had told Kate about the situation she had suggested she and Mark head over to Michael's to try and mediate the coming storm but I stopped them.

"They have to deal with it by themselves." I had told her then. She had hesitated but agreed and I also asked them that if for some reason I end up missing for days, then she and Mark will know I've been murdered.

*sigh*

Looking down at my breakfast I finished it in own go and hurried out of the apartment. I stopped and looked down then growled and ran back to my room. Coming this time with my pants on, I reached the front door and opened it. Stopped, patted down my pant pockets and groaned frustratingly as I headed back into the living room and tossed around the couch for my wallet. I found it and then pocketing that I head out, locking the door behind me.

When I reached the sidewalk, I looked up to where my window was and I sighed, hanging my head and walked back into the building heading up the flight of stairs and unlocking the door. Inside my apartment I looked around for my phone before remembering I left it in my room. After grabbing the damned thing I stopped before heading out and tried to remember anything else I may have forgotten.

Pants? Check.

Wallet? Check.

Phone? Check.

Anything else?

...

Nothing?

...

Okay then.

I headed towards the door when I suddenly turned around and walked over to the kitchen counter where a small bowl, shaped like a turtle's shell, was and I reached in and picked out my bike keys.

Just how the hell was I going to get around in this damned city? Commit GTA?

That's sure to get me a one way ticket to prison!

After rechecking all the important stuff I think I've got all of them and made my way out of the apartment.

 **Outside...**

I walked out the building, it was about 20 stories high with about 10 maybe 12 apartments. I don't actually know all of my neighbors except for Mr. and Mrs. Liang across from my apartment door. They were a Chinese couple who have lived in this building for 20 years now, in fact they were the ones who greeted me and owned the grocery store/restaurant on the ground floor. Heck I later found out they owned the building!

That took me by surprise since I rented the apartment from a Jennifer Wills, who happened to be the Liang's oldest child and a lawyer and who handles all of the financials for the apartment rentals in the building for her parents. The Liangs were in their mid-70s but still active and very cheerful. I almost always eat down at their restaurant since they serve the best _Red Pork_ and _Chicken Chop Suey_ I've ever tasted.

Moving on...

I saw my motor bike inside the mini-garage to the side of the building, it was big enough to house up to 20 vehicles and the tenants all have cars. I had my trusty Harley (which I call _Harley Quinn_ ), why my friends and family bother me with trivial questions about my naming my bike is beyond me.

I keyed in the ignition and the engine coughed to life then began purring...or growling, depending on how your hearing interprets the sound of the motor rumbling as I pulled the accelerator and revved the engine.

"Oh, Mr. Fate!" A man called out to me, it was heavily accented with the famous Chinese accent (one you hear in all of the movies) and I turned around to see old man Liang walking up to me. "You heading out?"

"Yes. I need to pick up my nephew from my sister's house." I told him and he smiled. I knew why but I just quietly chuckled underneath my helmet as I put it on.

"Little Kenji is coming over?" Mr. Liang laughed as he said my nephew's name. He's always laughing whenever he says that name, granted he likes having the kid over and would often times teach him some kung fu lessons, which I find interesting and had requested him to teach me but he refused saying that I was too old for it. I simply thanked him anyways.

"Yep. Today's the day. Erika and Akio are going out on their...what?...12th wedding anniversary? I seriously forgot but the called me last night to go over to their place and pick up Kenji."

"Of course." He nodded but looked like he wasn't finished. "When you return, can you send him over to the shop? I've got some of Yun's old toys from when he was a little boy. I'm sure Kenji would like to see them."

"Sure thing. I've got to go. See ya when I get back." I revved the engines one more time before accelerating out of the open garage door and turned right onto the main road. I narrowly missed the stop sign...for the fourteenth time! This week alone! Whoever, put that there was an idiot...or maybe I'm just blind.

* * *

 **Forty minutes later, suburban area.  
**

 **South of the city...**

 **0901 hrs**

I reached the outer parts of the city and headed deeper into the suburbs. This place is always almost quiet on Sundays. I glance around and saw a few of the people who live here walking their dogs or simply taking a stroll. I drove up a few more blocks before coming to a house I recognized. It was colored a dull brown color with blue and green trimmings, the windows were obscured by curtains and there was a small white picket fence in front of the green recently mowed lawn.

A gate blocked the path to the front porch where the door was but I drove up the drive way to the left side of the house and stopped just a few meters from the garage. I keyed off the ignition and the humming of my Harley stopped, I set the stand and got off.

Before I know it, the front door is thrown open and my nephew comes barreling out, he's about 9 years old with wavy brown hair (color same as his mother's, while wavy hair he gets from his dad), wearing an Iron Man t-shirt and black shorts. He's quite pale compared to my sister and I's more light brown skin tone. I got ready for when-yeah there it is!

He jumps up and I stepped forward and caught him under the arms and swing him around while laughed and squealed, the kid is always so happy when I see him. I laugh along with him and then set him down just as I caught a glimpse of another kid standing on the porch.

It's a little girl about 7 years old, she had short brown hair, pale skin like Kenji's and had the most adorable face I have ever seen. Seeing as how most women I meet I consider cute, this little girl takes the prize. I look to Kenji who stared up at me and I asked him, "Who's that?"

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked back with a confused stare.

"Who's the little girl, Kenji?"

He looked from me to the porch and then back at me. "That's Kasumi, Uncle Rad." He said, but I just stared at him and then back at the girl who had a sad look on her face.

"Kasumi?"

"Yeah, Uncle Rad!" He crossed his arms. "Kasumi. She's my little sister...you know?"

Wait...what?!

Since when did Kenji had a little sister?! Hold that thought...since when did Eirka and Akio have another kid...and looking at this little girl, she was the near spitting image of when Erika was a little girl. She can't be their kid...right? Holy shit! I must be dreaming.

Damn...how is this possible?! Wait...calm down Rad...calm down...there has to be a logical explanation for this. There has to be!

"Hey Rad!" I shake my head and take off my helmet and set it on the Harley. Then turning back to the porch I see Akio walking down the porch steps but stopped and patted the little girl, Kasumi, on her head. She ducked under Akio's hand and ran towards me. I simply didn't move and let her hide behind me, she poked her head out and gave Akio a big smile. "Kasumi. Get back here, don't bother Uncle Rad, not until you and Kenji go over to his place."

He chuckled as he said that and then turned to me. "Listen Rad. We may be gone for an extra day so..."

"Its no problem." I assured him, though in my mind I'm still trying to figure out who this little girl is...I mean, she looks enough like Akio and Erika to be their daughter but I don't remember them having had a second kid. "I've got the rest of the week off so I'm free and I won't start work until the following week."

"That's great." Akio smiled and then motioned with his head. "Go ahead to the house. I'll get your bike in the garage. Erika is in there..." he leaned closer and whispered. "Don't mention the Nexus games."

"What why?" I raised an eyebrow, the Nexus games is a popular Cyber-Online Tournament that pits you and your team against another in an ongoing tournament that lets you win over 50,000 dollars cash prize. It's held every two years and sponsored by several unknown benefactors and a few game companies such as Bioware, Bethesda, Bungie and so on.

"Her team lost on Friday night. She's been in denial ever since." He explained and I couldn't help but laugh and feel sorry for my sister at the same time.

"Alright thanks for the heads up." He nodded and pulled out his remote for the garage door. I looked over to find Kenji and the little girl...Kasumi...talking to each other and playing a hand game of some sort. "Hey kids! Come on, lets go inside."

"Race ya!" Kenji and the little girl-I have got to stop referring her as that-ran up ahead of me and opened the door. It slammed against the wall as it was flung open so far and caused Akio to yell from the garage.

"Kids! How many times do I have to tell you?! Don't fling the damn door so wide!"

"Sorry!" Both children yelled their apology and disappeared into the house. I followed and closed the door behind me...slowly. Then I turned and took in their living room, it was spacious and had a fireplace, what the hell would that chimney on the roof be for then?, there was the same 24inch Flat TV hung on the wall to the left and surrounded by the home theater surround sound system. There was the three arm chairs all sitting around the black round coffee table and then there's the couch I used to crash on when I still hadn't found an apartment the last two years. *sigh* A lot of lazy memories those.

"Rad! is that you?!" Erika's loud voice came out of the kitchen and I went there. She was making a last minute touch to whatever it was she was doing and when she saw me she smiled a sweet sisterly smile and I gave her my cheeky brotherly grin in response. "Wipe that smirk off your face."

"Sorry."

"Right." She shook her head and took out two children's food boxes and a larger plain white container. "You called dad or mum yet?"

"No. You know I'm trying to avoid them..again." I sighed, I'm not on the best of terms with both my parents lately, ever since I dropped out of College. "They hate me."

"They don't hate you, Rad." Erika said as she took a steaming pot of what looked like stew, from the gas stove and set it down on a place mat. her hands had mittens on them and then bent down and opened a cabinet from which she pulled out a scooper. "They're just mad that you didn't want to retry College."

"Same thing." I pointed out and pouted but she ignored me.

"You know they won't call you unless you call them first, right?" She scooped up a lot of stew and poured it into the white container, it was large enough and none of the stew spilled. "You have to call them sometime."

"I know but I don't want to hear them nagging me about college all over again." I told her and she simply shrugged as she then poured the remaining stew into the kid boxes. "By the way? Is that what I think it is?"

"Yep. Mom's secret recipe." She grinned at me knowing full well that even if I begged her she wouldn't tell me the _secret_ recipe. "The white container is for you and the kids tomorrow but their lunch boxes they'll have to eat tonight. I know Mr. Liang can cook a very delicious meal for them but for tonight I want my kids growing up on the food we grew up with."

"Got that right, sister." I did my best impression of an african-american choir singer but that only served to get Erika to laugh.

When she had stopped laughing, I remembered what I wanted to ask her earlier on...not the Nexus Games but about...the little girl. Kasumi. I don't know how she fits into all of this since I don't even remember her...ever.

"Hey, sis." I started.

"Hmm."

"Who's the little girl?" I asked her and she stared at me like I'm crazy.

"What little girl?" She inquired and then blinked twice before saying, "You mean, Kasumi?"

I nodded.

"What are you talking about, Rad?" She crossed her arms and frowned at me. Oh boy...she's gotten into her _mom_ mode. "You're acting weird you know?"

"Me? Acting weird? Pfft...as if." I scoffed and tried to avoid the glare she was shooting at me.

"Spit it out."

"What?"

"Why are asking about, Kasumi?" She said, her voice had turned a tad too threatening for my liking.

"W-when d-did you guys have her a-again?" I asked with a slight stammer.

"Six or seven years ago." She said, her voice returning to normal. "You know about that...you were there. All of you were there. It was a complicated procedure but somehow we managed to saver her."

Hoooly shhhiitt!

Six or seven years ago? But thats impossible! What happened six or seven years ago was a failed birth attempt that nearly cost Erika her life and the baby had died! This can't be happening! How is-how is this possible!

If what she says is true...then...that little girl...Kasumi is...that baby from...then.

"Rad? Rad? Damn it, Rad!" Erika snapped her fingers in front of my face and I came back from my very odd and very weird trance...it just isn't possible. How the hell did she and the baby survive together? "hey, Rad. You look a little pale, is everything alright? You know, if you're not feeling well then we can postp-"

"No,no,no!" I shook both hands at her. "You and Akio have been planning this anniversary for a while now and you should go. Don't worry about the kids...I'll take care of 'em."

"Its not the kids I'm worried about." She mumbled as she headed towards the stairs calling after the children. "Kenji! Kasumi! Are you kids ready?!"

"Yeah, mom!" Both their voices came down, they sounded excited. I know I am. Coz seriously I didn't expect that there would be a little girl for me to take care of. I sure as hell didn't expect a niece! Who would?! Then again...if she really is here and this isn't a dream or an hallucination and I don't any sort of memories of her over six years ago then, quite possibly I missed six years of Kasumi's life.

Damn...

"So Rad. Did Mr. Liang ask you about the kids?" I heard Akio's voice and turned around to see him coming in the front door. I noticed he said _kids_ and not Kenji so...wait...is it possible that..."Buddy, you okay? You look a little pale? If I didn't know any better I'd say you're trying to look like me."

I smiled a little at his little joke and I lightly punched his shoulder. We've been good friends since he and I met about a decade ago right when he started dating my sister. He's a cool guy who, surprisingly, played a lot of RTS games same as me. On occasions we would join up in a multiplayer LAN match for anything from Age of Empires, Empire Earth (among our common favorites) and even Warcraft and some Starcraft. But its with Sins of a Solar Empire that we truly played to beat each other.

That game brought out the worst in us. The last time we played it we ended up brawling in the living room much to Erika's dismay. Her snowglobe collection broke when I threw Akio against the shelves and that was where our fight ended. Erika had gotten out her husband's registered Colt 45 and was aiming it at us.

We both stopped then and hadn't played a single SoaSE since that night. We've decided not to play it anymore in their house so we set an online match so we don't brawl the next time around.

"Nope. Just thinking is all." I grinned and he shook his head. Both him and my sister are two years older than I am which was reason enough for Akio to try and set me up with his younger sister...needless to say his sister and parents hated me afterwards. I had somehow managed to mess up a Japanese phrase that Akio taught me, which loosely translated to something along the lines of; _I would very much like to get to know you better and hope we can be friends_. I screwed that up and said something I'm not even sure I understood.

They hated me right after that, even with Akio trying to explain what had happened had been an accident, his parents simply didn't want to have anything to do with me, while his sister threatened to gut me like a fish if I ever got near within fifty feet of her. I complied. My saving grace was my sister whom Akio's parents and sister love and adore, more than I can say for myself. So at least I haven't completely screwed up my relationship with Akio's side of the family.

"Okay they're ready." Erika walked down the stairs with Kenji and...Kasumi, in tow. They both look like any other average child in this country but this is my family so to me they looked especially special in my eyes. Who knows...maybe when I find the missus, I'll be able to look at my kids with the same amount of adoration and love. "Kids go to the kitchen and get your lunch boxes, I've already put them in separate plastic bags."

The two little mini-Erika and Akio went to the kitchen and returned with a pair of plastic bags. I walked over to the kitchen and retrieved the bigger container. The stew was still hot but the container helped mitigated the heat.

"Alright!" I say this a little loud. "You kids ready to go over to the King of Games' castle?!"

"Yes!" Both of them squealed happily as I led them out the front door with Erik and Akio following. Akio opened the garage and handed me their car keys. They have two cars, one is a mini-van much like my own while the other is a four-dour BMW. It belongs to Akio who works for a Japanese company whose name I can't even pronounce.

As I opened the car and deposited the container, both Kenji and Kasumi got in the back seat and strapped themselves in with the seat belts. I nodded approvingly and gave them a thumbs up which they responded in the same gesture. I turned around and and opened the driver's side door and got in. Keying the ignition the car rumbled and came to life causing both kids to yell out happily.

"Hey Rad." Erika called to me as I backed a little ways out the drive way. I stopped the car and looked out the window.

"Yeah sis?"

"You watch them like a hawk, is that understood?" I gulped and nodded. She smiled and then waved at us. "Goodbye kids! Don't drive your uncle insane, okay?"

"Okay!" The two little rascals grinned cheekily and waved back to their mother. I drove us out of the driveway and turned into the road and alternating between R-reverse and D-drive, I stepped on the gas and the car lurched forward a little sending us zooming past the other houses.

* * *

 **In front of my apartment**

 **A few hours later...**

I parked the car inside the building's garage and all three of us headed out. We reached the door to my building when I stopped and turned when I remembered what Mr. Liang had asked me to do. I looked at both Kenji and Kasumi and motioned for them to follow me. A few steps later we reached the Liangs' Grocery store. I opened the door and the kids filed in and I followed closely.

"Ah! Little Kenji and Kasumi!" an old lady's voice came from the counter and Mrs. Liang walked around said counter and picked up both kids on either arm. Let me tell something about this old woman...she's not as frail as she looks and Mr. Liang told me she was a martial arts champion in her time for five years in a row! I pity whoever tires to rob this grocery store.

"Ni Hao." both children greeted the old lady and she gave a low but happy chortle.

"Hi, Mrs. Liang." I bowed my head a little and she returned the gesture. It's become our little joke because when I first met the old couple I thought they were Japanese. I didn't know their last names then so I just assumed.

"Mr. Fate." She said as she set the two kids down on the floor. "You are overdue on your rent."

I froze and tried my best apologetic expression. She was clearly _not_ amused by it. So I just sighed and said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Liang, I had set aside the rent money on Thursday of last week but-"

"Yes, yes. I know about the little thief that stole your wallet and you had to buy a new one from here." she held her hand up and then from the small satchel pouch that she had belted around her waist she produced an old looking black leather bound wallet. That had a skull engraved onto one side...that's my old wallet!

"How?"

"Same day, little thief ran into Bojing, he had your wallet. Had not yet taken any of the money inside." She handed me my wallet back and I thanked her gratefully. "Your rent is paid, you need not worry."

"Ah! Mr. Fate." Mr. Liang's voice greeted me and I saw him come in from the back door that led to their restaurant. He had a box with him and he set it down. "Where are the two little-oh, oh! There you are!"

Kenji and Kasumi ran up to the old chinese man and he hugged them both. I smiled a little at this but then wondered if I heard the old man right when he asked me earlier if Kenji was coming over. *sigh* I don't want to think about it now. For a few minutes we stayed in the grocery store and I talked with Mr. Liang and thanked him for somehow returning my wallet and he just scoffed telling me that I need to keep my stuff safe or I'd lose a lot more than just my wallet. I detected a subtle hint of the possible dangers of his statement and I nodded my agreement.

After that I decided it was time the two kids hit the showers and get ready for their lunch. They took turns in the shower and I went third. I looked around and nodded at how clean it looked, considering I cleaned it and the apartment last night at near break neck speed. I prepared their lunches and we all sat in front of my TV in the living room of the apartment.

I asked what they wanted to watch and they both looked at each other and in perfect unison did something even I didn't expect. They completely and utterly blew my mind when they did the exact movements of the well known jutsus that Ive seen in one of the animes I watched a while ago. They both also yelled out and took on dramatic poses, "Naruto!"

Seeing them do that caused me to fall on my knees and laugh...I couldn't stop...it was hilariously cute the way they did that together. Oh well, getting up I messed around with my TV and DVD player and found what I needed. Then with a few adjustments I found my external hard drive and plugged it in and searched for my Anime folder.

Selecting the folder marked _Naruto_ I opened it and asked which season they wanted to watch. I picked it out for them and asked, "Kenji you know how to work this thing right?"

He nodded and then I handed him the remote. Both sat down on my sofa and watched the intro of Naruto. I left them there for a moment as I went to my room and deposited my wallets into a safe...corner. Said corner also happened to house my safe which I keep the more important stuff inside, a registered 357. Magnum among them.

I returned to the living room and took my place next to the kids and watched as Naruto was facing off against his friend and now enemy, Sasuke.

This is going to be a long day...

* * *

 **Meanwhile...**

 **Somewhere not significant to the story but nonetheless will help in furthering the plot...**

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

"I may or may not have altered something..."

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU?!"

"Not to mess around with your stuff..."

"AND YET YOU STILL MESSED AROUND WITH MY STUFF!"

"Sorry boss...won't happen again."

"YOU DAMN RIGHT IT WON'T! BECAUSE I CAN'T ALTER THE DAMN THING IF ITS CHANGED...NOW WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"It...er...wasn't my fault completely." A pause. "I just wanted to watch some po-er-cartoons when I accidentally hit the _Surge_ button."

"YOU _ACCIDENTALLY_ HIT THE _SURGE_ BUTTON?!" Another pause. "ARE FUCKING MENTAL?! DO HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT DOES?!"

"Er...no?"

"FUCK! JUST GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

*Door opens and then shuts*

"GREAT...JUST FUCKING GREAT...NOW WHAT THE HELL AM I GONNA DO?"

*cricket-cricket-cricket*

"I HATE THIS JOB..."

* * *

 **This filler just explores more of our gamer/god character and I only do this because I'm waiting for the results of that little question I posted earlier. So far...anyways...Its up to you readers though if you think this should be considered part of the story. I just wrote this because I was bored and because I only have this laptop for tonight before my mother (whose laptop this is) comes and takes it. Mine as I (or have yet to explain) explained is busted and the connection here to the internet is slow.**

 **Anyways looking forward to your responses and hopefully by next week I'll have the time setting and can plan out the story further from there. Also I'd like to thank _Prince Sheogorath_ and _LanzcorporalAssWipe_ for their suggestions. Thank you guys.**

 **-Danen5 Out!**


	4. Chapter 3: Battle of Xaxrix Pt1

**AN: Well dear readers, it looks like ME1 is still in the lead and by default it win, as this week is the deadline for the previous chapter, here's the continuation. For this chapter it will focus a little more on the** _ **other**_ **universe where the games are** _ **real**_ **. And I thank those who took the time to participate in that poll which I forgot to officially set up but next time when something like this comes up again I'll definitely set up an** _ **official**_ **pill…er..ppll…damn it! Poll! There! I am grateful for the reviews. Anyways moving on...**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Stellaris. This is getting old.**

 **Important Notice: For all of those who have given me helpful ideas I thank you all and if I do use them it will be accredited to you in the AN below. If anyone have any other helpful comments or sees any mistakes (whatever that may be, materials from both games-I want to be accurate with some of my descriptions to make this story real-ish) please PM or review.**

 ***Slight changes made in this chapter.**

 **Also, for the two guests who reviewed the third chapter recently:**

 **I thank you for that and hopefully you like this one-ish. While the third chapter is not actually** _ **mission critical**_ **in and of itself, it is a stepping stone for the plot further along the line as it will help explain why he suddenly has a niece. All will be explained further in the story as I get there but for now its a pose piece or something and should not be taken seriously...I did say I was bored, right? But seriously, its important in the long run...also the gamer guy's reaction when its revealed that his** _ **actions**_ **had caused some serious consequences is far away but its getting there. For now we'll enjoy a few confrontations between the navies of the Turians and the Tunarin Imperial Covenant.**

 **As for JustReviewing:**

 **I understand your concern. But as I said before...what the Masses want the Masses get and right now the Masses are confused and conflicting each other. However, I will say that if the poll I'm setting up decides for either HFY crack fic or serious tone or whatever...yeah.**

 **Moving on!**

* * *

 **Undisclosed Location on Citadel**

"How goes Shepard's hunt?" A large, avian creature standing just above six feet, asked another creature that looked like a frog with very large black eyes and two protrusions on its head like horns. It glanced to the avian and spoke in a snappy and fast voice.

"STG has spotted her ship head-" The frog like alien was interrupted when an orange glow manifested from his left forearm and a chiming noise repeatedly rang out. "Excuse me."

" _Sparatus, Valern. Good. The both of you need to come to my office at the Asari embassy immediately._ " the feminine face on the holographic screen that was formed from the orange glowing device spoke with urgency in her voice.

"What? Why?" Sparatus, the avian, raised a non-existent eyebrow as he asked the blue faced female.

"Tevos. Is this about the-" Valern, the snappy frog like alien was again stopped as the blue woman on his screen raised a hand.

" _Not over the line._ " She told him but narrowed her eyes when Valern was about to say something. " _I don't trust the security measures we put in place that fully. Now get over here, its important. I'll be waiting._ "

Both the grey skinned two horned alien and his metallic skinned avian compatriot looked at each other and sighed heavily. They were sure going to be in for another one of their fellow Councilor's lectures...or something else.

"She seems worried." Valern stated as they headed out of the room. They both passed the door and made their way to the elevators.

"Indeed." Sparatus could only nod as he mentally contemplated the urgency in the Asari's voice. The only reason for this would be the new aliens they had encountered only a week earlier. ' _Has it been that long already? Why haven't they made their move yet?_ '

As they rode the elevator up, Valern glanced at his Turian counterpart and simply assessed that he was thinking of the latest development on the galactic rim borders of his Hierarchy's territory. The Salarian Councilor then switched his attention to the elevator, in his opinion it was a damned waste of time and money since the thing was so slow but he wasn't going to complain. He was used to it by now. But being a hyperactive race of shortlived aliens it took some restraint on his part not to curse at the elevator.

Sparatus' omni-tool pinged with an alert and the Turian manipulated the holographic keypad and screen to view the message. Valern noticed it was a message from the Primarch of Palaven.

"Repairs to the _Hierarchy Shield_ have been completed. However, it will still have to remain in drydock for another week for diagnostics and further tests to its overheated barriers." Sparatus voiced his answer to the unasked question from the Salarian.

"Dreadnought sent to aid PG-238?"

"Yes"

"Its Captain?" A small tense feeling floated between them but the Turian shrugged it away and focused his attention on the Salarian Councilor.

"He's not in good shape...mentally." Sparatus revealed, rather hesitantly if his tone was anything Valern had to go by. The turian noticed the small nod of understanding from Valern and sighed.

"We have a small dossier on the Captain, I believe it was his first real command." The turian councilor cringed in anger but held back, sometimes he wished the damned Salarians would just mind their own business and leave well enough alone. ' _Damned STG_ ' Sparatus thought angrily as he glared at Valern who ignored the look.

"I'd appreciate it if you and your people do not spy on everyone of mine." Sparatus growled but desisted from trying to strangle the Salarian. "But yes. It was Kessor's first command."

The air was devoid of sound except for the elevator's upbeat melody, an ironic contradiction to the tense air between the two councilors. Not an air of hatred but one of frustration and annoyance since both of them knew their governments don't really like each other. The Salarians and their sneaky little niche was a pain in the neck for the militaristic turians who didn't much like it when their secrets were in danger of being uncovered.

A moment later the elevator doors opened and they reached the embassies. The floor was pristine and white with dull creamy white-grey walls adorned with screens that showed the daily news or market stocks. Sparatus and Valern marched towards the Asari embassy, double timing it and were admitted past the front desk in mere seconds.

 **Within Asari embassy...**

Within the next minute they were inside a dark room. One they were all too familiar with after having met there frequently in the past. Tevos was already inside watching something on her omni-tool. She glanced at her two counterparts and she sat straighter in her chair.

"Councilor Sparatus, Valern." She greeted in a courteous tone and nodded to each of them. "Thank you for coming over despite the short notice."

"Please, Councilor Tevos." Sparatus returned the courtesy, but the underlying sarcastic tone in his voice was not lost on the asari. Being a diplomat, she picked up a few things on mannerisms. "Enough with the pleasantries, what is the reason for this...meeting?"

"Yes. I would like to know, STG has indicated no new movement from the new contacts, why are you so worried?" Valern put in his own two cents and the asari watched them both with a calm and composed expression before she let out a breath, more of a sigh really. The salarian saw that she was frustrated, but why?

"What I am about to say cannot leave this room, until such a time when we can truly corroborate the information I have." She informed them and both Sparatus and Valern had apprehensive looks but nodded nonetheless. Whatever information she has must be important to make her worry so much.

For the next ten minutes Tevos was in animated conversation with the Salarian and the Turian councilors about the information she had on her. Her arms and hands flew around in wild and sometimes inappropriate gestures to emphasize her points whilst Sparatus or Valern's expressions would change from apprehension to astonishment as she spoke more and more on the info.

When she was done both councilors looked even more serious but Sparatus was shaking his head from side to side. His eyes narrowed and his talons on his chin, a single talon softly scratching his mandible, which twitched ever so slightly. He looked annoyed if the constant huff he let out was anything to indicate it.

Valern just stared at Tevos with eyes nearly bulging out and his mouth forming an 'O' then closed. His head bobbed a little up and down but he remained silent. He didn't know whether or not to believe the information. Not that he couldn't dismiss it but it sounded so outlandish and...well it was simply out of this world. He didn't know if the asari councilor had lost her mind but some parts of her information was correct. His analysis of the alien's ships and weaponry from the data collected from the satellites and from the information acquired by the Turian fleet that was attacked proved some of her story.

Yet he just can't help but feel that the whole thing was...weird, to use a human term. He glanced over to Sparatus who looked like he was about to scold Tevos but was held back by the more believable parts of her story. The asari on the other hand only sat back with a calm expression, like a good little diplomat she is, and understandably didn't say a word. She knew that her fellow councilors would dismiss her claim and even she would but the Matriarchs were adamant.

They had been the ones sitting on this information and had contacted her to give it to her...even if she personally thought it was a farce, the matriarchs had spoken and their word was law among the asari. The information was thousands of years old and that alone would have made it redundant but when a thousand year old blue lady with enough biotic power to crush every bone in your body tells you that she is right then you listen. Tevos sighed but it was a silent, mental sigh, one that she had learned to do whenever she was faced with some hard choices or frustrating diplomatic situations.

She did this when the humans were first made contact with and also did it again when they had come head to head with the Batarians in the SKyllian Verge. ' _I really need a vacation._ ' she groaned in her mind as she watched the salarian and the turian eye her with a mixed look of disbelief and annoyance, well that last one was Sparatus and she could understand.

"Well?" She broke the silence and the others looked at each other, unsure of what to say exactly. "Look, like I said, the information can be withheld for now. Until we can find some form of confirmation for-"

The sudden pinging noises coming from their omni-tools filled the room and they all answered simultaneously. Their eyes flew open in shock and fear when they read the message.

"Impossible!" Sparatus yelled as his eyes registered the words on his screen. "How can-there were...there were over a thousand ships in that system!"

"Sparatus calm down." Tevosordered, her voice shaky but firm.

"STG confirms it." Valern spoke up, his usual snappy tone now more resigned and a hint of fear in it. "A force of 300 ships, all matching the description of the new contacts' ships poured into the Xaxrix system and wiped out a large portion of the turian fleet positioned there."

"Spirits...that's thousands of souls...gone."

For a moment the room was silent but Sparatus roared out in anger and his talons balled into a fist as he slammed it against the table, a slight dent can be seen on the surface.

"Fleet survivors...report having destroyed a sizable number of the enemy fleet. Of the 300 that arrived, most of which were frigates, over a 100 enemy frigates either destroyed or disabled. Several of their cruisers were also damaged and three of which suffered heavy catastrophic loss. While their dreadnoughts sustained minor hull breaches and the single super-dreadnought they fielded sustained no damages." Valern quietly read off the report he received from his operatives. He narrowed his eyes and managed a glance at his counterparts. Tevos was seemingly calm but within her well kept facade she was raging though not quite in the way he and Sparatus imagined. The turian however was clearly distressed but angry.

"This proves that they can be hurt." Valern spoke, mostly to reaffirm to the two other councilors that all was not lost.

"How are the ships coming along?" Tevos inquired in a quiet voice as she looked to her turian counterpart. He stared at the dent he had made on the desk for a moment before breathing in to calm his nerves and replied.

"We're maxing the capacity out and thanks to the Salarians and their upgrades can begin fielding a large number of ships, mostly frigates and cruisers, within the next few months."

"We might not have a few months." Tevos pointed out and both Valern and Sparatus agreed with her. "Why not inform the humans and the other races of this situation?"

"The humans, maybe."Sparatus spat out the word _humans_ but unlike his fellow turians he can at least respect them for some of their contributions to the galactic community. He didn't hate them personally, just the way they seemed to flaunt their politics around that irritated him. Then he had a thought, "On the other hand, I wouldn't want the Batarians to find out lest they try and acquire the alien's tech for their own."

"That is a problem but we cannot let our own bickering get the better of us," Tevos reasoned with the turian who looked like he was about to argue but he kept quiet, his mind still on the lost souls of many turians who served with the fleets in the Xaxrix system.

"Understandable." Valern stated, he worked a little with his omni-tool and then continued, "Humans and Batarian industrial capabilities may lessen the workload but the logistical and supply of eezo may endanger the economy and what eezo resources we have left."

"Then we lift the ban on dormant relays and begin activating more of them." Sparatus suggested which prompted Tevos to glare at him. "What? We have limited worlds rich with eezo, unless you want Thessia to offer some of theirs?"

"We're going to go around in circles if we continue this." Tevos sighed. "Lets meet again tomorrow."

"Agreed."

With that they all left, except for Tevos, who simply laid back in her chair which leaned to comply with her movement. A sigh escaped her lips as she brought her hand to her temple and rubbed the throbbing ache that was developing. She silently hoped that whatever trouble Shepard had predicted from that fanciful vision the new Spectre had witnessed from the faulty beacon on the human colony...the one that was attacked by Saren, another Spectre that has recently been disavowed. ' _What was the name of that colony again?_ ' Tevos thoughtfully tapped her chin then she remembered, it was Eden Prime, ' _humans and their naming conventions_.' She silently prayed to the goddess that the Citadel races won't be facing two potentially devastating events...one of which hangs in the hands of a human and her wild claims and the other a more material thing. She kept going over and over it in her head, that message they first received from the new contacts during the second contact with their fleet.

 _"Our God demands the extinction of your pathetic race...and WE are HIS instruments_!"

She remembered how it sent chills up her spine and wondered what would set these aliens down this path...a path to exterminate a sentient life...just because their _god_ demanded it? Why? What gives them the right? And no she didn't believe for one second that these aliens wholly believed in such a demand from their so called _god_. However, such thoughts gave her headache more fuel and she groaned standing from her chair and headed out of the room.

Within the darkness as she turned off the lights...a shadow swirled into a black mist that seem to echo with a maniacal laughter fading into obscurity.

 _ **Oh what precious fun we're going to have...**_

* * *

 **Xaxrix system**

 **2 hours earlier...**

 **51st Fleet/** _ **HolyBreach**_

 **Aboard the Flagship** _ **Breach**_

 **Bridge**

Harald almost couldn't believe his luck. Out of the most promising candidates eligible to command not only their own ship but a whole fleet, he'd been chosen by the Grand Marshal himself, and by extension, the Holy One. Now he stood on the small balcony on the bridge overlooking the trenches that lined the bridge each divided by three aisles. His keen eyes eyed his new crew, all of them fresh out of the Naval Academy, but all of whom had passed with flying colours and were handpicked by the Committee to serve on the most advanced piece of machinery the Covenant could roll out of the assembly line.

This ship had it all, new and improved sublight engines, the Mk.2 fusion powered Impulse thrusters, with state of the art tachyon sensors which most objects in the known galaxy could not escape, brand new and battle tested computer systems dealing mostly in the offensive capabilities of his ship and finally the FTL drive, probably the most powerful one the Covenant had built to date. This drive was similar to the Jump Drive but is powered by the hundreds of minds of some of their most gifted psionics, most of these were volunteers hoping to power this innovative piece of technology with their gifts. Though it has drawbacks that needed twin Mk.3 Warp drives just in case the ship needed to high tail it out of a bad situation.

Captain…no…Admiral Harald Vandersen was proud of this, the culmination of his military career, he had resigned from the military to take care of his aging parents and younger brothers but then outbreak...his eyes darkened with that thought, his mind forcing itself not to remember….to remember….no….he will not remember. He cannot, that memory was repressed for a reason. Instead he turned his attention back to the bridge crew below him, the conning tower was where they had set up the bridge, one would think that it was a bad idea to put _the_ most important command centre on such a vulnerable target but the shipwrights and designers of the Covenant had never had that thought cross their minds before. In fact not one person in the Covenant had thought it was a horrible and dangerous idea to place their commanders in the line of fire.

Each combat situation a Covenant fleet enters into, would be a nightmare of worry for the vulnerable bridge and its crew complement and the commanding officer, however, the Tunarin had always been warriors from birth till death and never had they considered their position a vulnerability. Sure it could get them killed if some pilot or missile or some other weapon get lucky and hit the bridge on the conning tower, but the motto of the Tunarin and its Covenant had always been, _"Face your foes head on, Face their weapons head on, Face your death and welcome it with open arms….no matter how and in what form."_

Of course, this mentality is not without its downside, every now and then a few Tunarin would get overwhelmed with the loss of their friends, loved ones and those who they feel they need to protect or could have and failed. This feeling can compromise the thought process and military rigidity of their mentality which may result in suicides, spontaneous murders, unprovoked attacks and in some cases, mass riots and full on rebellions. For the past four and half centuries the Tunarin Covenant had somehow managed to put out two solutions to this problem. Harald had been one of the recipients of the second form. The first being outright execution whilst the second is a costly and often times faulty process, involving the deliberate suppression of the painful memories and the subject of those memories.

Thus Harald had avoided a mental breakdown by initializing one of the many defense mechanisms against such a case. Chemicals within his body, artificial glands attached to his heart (among many others) produce these chemicals, which then begin getting pumped to his brain to where his long term and short term cerebral strands are located which target specific parts of it and begin dispersing to suppress the memory forcibly making him forget momentarily of his loss. Admiral Vandersen, newly assigned to _Holy Breach_ and commander of the Flagship _Breach_ , was snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed his second in command, First Officer Jacob Merallus. Said Officer was quite tall, taller than himself by a foot and a half. The man wore the dress blues with the double Red Crescent moons over a black background, placed on an oval patch attached to his left shoulder.

"Admiral Vandersen, Sir." First Officer Merallus saluted and took a relaxed yet still rigid stance with his hands clasped behind him. "All ships reporting in green and ready to take on their first challenge."

"Good." Harald nodded, keeping his eyes on the tactical holographic display floating above the bridge crew below him. Ships were shown in 3D rendering and his fleet was marked in green, all of which were displaying individual stats regarding their hull integrity, shield charge and strength, etc. His fleet was shown lazily floating in the void just a couple of thousand kilometres from the large fork structure High Command had designated a _Relay_.

With a thought, Harald accessed his NeLI, he saw the bridge crew similarly accessing their NeLI in order to maximise their efficiency of using their terminals. Shipboard AI had access to the NeLI but was constantly monitored…he thought it was ironic how they're still using the damned thing when its kind had nearly destroyed the galaxy some hundred odd years before the war with the avian race. He found what he was looking for in the network and again with a single thought he connected to Comm Officer Raymond Uriel.

"Communications Officer Uriel." He spoke mentally and said crewman looked up from his terminal, three steps from the Tactical Officer's own terminal which stood right below the balcony.

"Sir?" Uriel inquired with a thought.

"Connect me to the fleet." Harald commanded and the Comm Officer nodded then tapped away at his terminal.

"NeLI connection has been amplified to ship and fleet wide communications." The new Admiral thanked his subordinate and then cleared his throat which caught the attention of his whole bridge, his ship crew and the rest of the fleet/ships under his command. Everyone knew this speech was coming, it happened every time before a major engagement…not the one where you get married but a hostile engagement with both sides trying to blow each other away with weapons of mass destruction.

*"Akeiang!." Harald began, a smile forming on his lips. He always wanted to say that bit, watching too many vids had influenced him to a point. "Sons, and daughters of the Holy One! Our foes today are another bird like species, although we have just met them, they have proved to be just as hostile as the ones from a hundred years ago. I know many of you are veterans of that forsaken war and while we as a species crave war, it is one where we aren't always prepared to lose those closest to us. These xenos have angered the might of our god and His wrath will flood this galaxy in a tidal wave of conquest! I see before me not a thousand enemy warships. Nay, what I see before me are a thousand fools throwing themselves against the might of our shields!"

When those words left his mouth the xenos began their bombardment of his fleet. Across the distance between them, golden streaks of light barrelled in a straight line at impossible speeds closing the vast distance between them. In just under fifty seconds the enemy weapons made contact with their shields. Sky blue hexagonal shaped hypershields snapped into existence with every strike.

"I was there on that lowly science ship barely a quarter the size of our corvettes and I witnessed the might of their so called spinal cannons!" Harald yelled as his corvettes, positioned at the front of the fleet, had their shields impacted by several hundred mass accelerator rounds. The tactical officer who monitored the vital signs of the entire fleet flinched with every hit but sighed with relief when he saw that single shots barely made a dent in the shields charge and the capacitors were quickly recharging every minute. However, he frowned when he registered several shots hitting a single corvette forcing the shield to plummet a good forty percent while the capacitors struggled to compensate with recharging the lost energy. Meanwhile, the admiral continued with his speech, all the man was missing is a nice dramatic music to accompany said speech.

"I trembled at the fate which I had been dealt with." Admiral Vandersen's voice took on a near identical tone with that of every other charismatic leader within the command structure of the military. Dramatic voice, the over-dramatic hand gestures and that prideful glint in his eyes, all of which are indicative of a man used to giving speeches yet had not the opportunity for his voice to be heard by no one other than those closest to him. "But I wasn't going to let my crew die on my watch. Not when I had the chance to save their lives, but now I have the chance to payback these xenos for their attempt on my and the lives of those who served with me on that ship. With this fleet under my command and orders directly from the Holy One, we will smash their pitiful fleet and when we have secured this system, the 15th/ _Holy Sword_ and 42nd/ _Holy Hammer_ fleets will arrive to begin their incursion!"

Along the second trench, where most of the logistics and supply masters were situated in their terminals, two young officers, a 2nd Lieutenant and a 1st Lieutenant, both in their early 100s, glanced at one another and one whispered, "...did he say _pitiful_?"

"I think he did." The 1st Lieutenant replied in a similar fashion as he leaned just a little to his left. He caught a glare from the young female Lieutenant of similar rank to his fellow whisperer's left but ignored it.

"Nothing _pitiful_ about that." the 2nd Lieutenant inclined his head towards the tactical display where it showed their fleet near the Relay and the alien fleet opposite their position shooting at their corvettes. There was over a thousand of them and it looked like the shields of their screen line were beginning to show signs of strain. "How long do you think his speech will go on?"

"I don't know but I hope he finishes soon...it looks like the _Killer, Lover's Quarrel, Hypothesis, Marrow_ and _High Price_ are about to lose their shields." the 1st Lt. replied worryingly. His eyes darting from the admiral above them and the tactical display.

"...now my brave brethren, unleash hell upon this blasted foe and let loose the Covenant's wrath!" Harald finished his speech with a dramatic inhalation of breath, his eyes red and shot, his face sweating like a rainstorm and his body shaking in pride and...was he laughing? Indeed the new admiral had begun laughing, it was not a loud laugh but it was still noticeable to some of the crew, especially the First Officer, Marellus, who eyed the man with a raised brow and look of incredulity, but decided not to say anything. When Harald had pulled himself back together, he turned to FO Marellus and asked, his facial expression normal and his tone receding in volume. "What did you think of that speech? A little over the top or just right?"

"I wouldn't know, Sir." Merallus answered honestly. "I think it was adequate considering the circumstances. I believe the order is yours to give."

"Then you have my permission, First Officer." Harald straightened up and took on a more princely pose as he tucked his hands behind his back, puffed his chest forward a little and reclined his head at an odd 5 degrees upward. His eyes glued to the Tac display. "Order corvettes to begin H-45 maneuver, Annoyance to harass the enemy corvette line and destroyers, Interceptors to maintain our flanks and deter any flanking maneuvers from their fighters, while have our Gunboats target their cruisers. All ordinances are cleared for use."

"Aye, Admiral." FO Merallus saluted before relaying the order to the Comm and Tactical Officers, one who relayed it to the corvettes while the other who monitored the situation from his terminal. "Orders relayed, sir."

"Now we watch."

 **In space...**

 _Holy Breach_ consisted of a single _Support_ battleship (the newest one in the navy and the most advanced), 8 _Torpedo,_ 7 _Javelin_ and 7 _Hunter_ cruisers the first two classes assigned as heavy duty missile platforms whilst the last class was tasked to coordinate the corvettes' assault, 25 _Corsair, Streamer and Privateer_ destroyers each grouped in a Strike-Pack to help with strategic attacks in any gaps opened within the alien fleet's formations or to mop-up, and finally the corvettes themselves are listed as 80 _Annoyance,_ 50 _Gunboats_ and 70 _Interceptors_ with the first class tasked with harassing the alien corvette (ME-Frigates) screen and their destroyers (ME-Cruisers), the second class set on disrupting their cruisers (ME-Dreadnoughts) lines and the last corvette class on intercept and flank overwatch.

A typical corvette was assigned with 3 smaller sized turrets but with the gunboat design, it has only a single turret to support its torpedo bay, as its only comprised with a _core._ Its utility or secondary complement is divided into sections with 3 small, 2 medium and a single auxiliary section, which luckily doesn't draw too much power from the generators.

With the Annoyance corvettes, the designers wanted to get the most out of its maneuverability and speed. It has the standard interceptor _core_ and armed with a single Gamma Laser mounted at the front turret, and two Stormfireautocannons attached in the middle and rear turrets. It has the added protection of three enigmatic shield generators powered by two enigmatic power generators slotted in medium whilst a single auxiliary shield capacitor helps hasten shield regeneration.

A gunboat however, has a torpedo bay at the front turret with its complementary Stormfireautocannon in the rear turret. It was designed with quick deployment of its torpedoes to deal a huge amount of damage in rapid succession from mid to knife fighting range. While still remaining at enough range from the blast, its stormfire is there to keep any brave fighter pilots from engaging it although that has not often worked. With a similar setup with their utility sections as the other two corvette classes.

So when these two classes moved forward whilst maneuvering out of the line of fire of the alien ships, they immediately used their Impulse thrusters to shorten the hundreds of thousands of kilometers between them. Each corvette, piloted by the best of what the Covenant had to offer, zigged and zagged around the incoming projectiles but even then they still got hit by several rounds. Their shields flared bright blue when struck and a few even lost theirs entirely.

A single corvette (among the dozens) that had lost its shields was now down to its bare armor, even after all these years the corvette had only underwent slight changes to its armor, it did have a slightly stronger hull with the applied living metal but even that precious resource was rare and thus applied to it as little as possible to be saved for more important structures...like a dyson sphere or ring world. The ship was captained by a competent veteran of the previous war, under his direction the ship moved gracefully in the void pulling off maneuvers that were considered impossible for such a stiff vessel. Unlike their alien counterparts, whose ships seemed to fly and weave through their attack formations with unhindered ease.

Dissimilar to what the combat vids that showed where the 5th Fleet/ _Holy Pacifier_ had decimated the near entirety of the alien forces in their first _real_ engagement, the situation right now was becoming stressful for the corvettes and a number of Captains had become annoyed by the constant shift in the alien corvette lines. At least he took solace in that the alien's spinal mounts proved to be a handicap in this engagement, seeing as how they had to turn and face the front of their ships and fire directly where they faced. Meanwhile, the other corvettes had begun their harassment of the enemy but were wholly surprised when their auto cannons were met with some form of shielding system that didn't register within the tactical system of the fleet's NeLI network. From what the vids showed, the aliens had no viable shielding against their neturon and marauder missiles during the first fight but it would seem that assumption is wrong. A silver lining appeared when the Gamma Lasers punctured the relatively weak armor of the enemy corvettes, their shield system didn't even snap into existence to protect the ship.

The order went out. All ships within the 51st fleet were alerted to this apparent weakness within the enemy shield array and utilization of laser/energy based weaponry was authorized to the max, with autocannons to provide cover from the swarm of enemy fighters that outnumbered the _Breach's_ fighter escorts.

Even with that edge, the corvettes were sorely outnumbered by the hundreds of enemy corvette analogues. Tactical onboard the flagship received reports of several Annoyance and Gunboat corvettes losing shields with a few even reporting issues with their capacitors shorting out with onboard computers trying to compensate but the systems were rapidly being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of enemy mass rounds and some type of missile/torpedo that had managed to rip through shields rendering the corvettes defenseless, shield wise. Said missiles also disrupted the Impulse thrusters to a degree where the ship is without maneuverability for about thirty seconds giving time enough for the aliens to line up spinal shots.

 **Aboard the** _ **Lover's Quarrel...**_

 **Bridge**

Captain Esther D. Legolas, one of many female captains within the Covenant military, growled as her ship was pestered by several tons of force with speed equal or surpassing that of light speed. Her face contorted with pain, her left side was bruised when she had been thrown out of her chair when the first of the projectiles impacted against the starboard side of her ship, that was when their shields had collapsed after being hit by one of those strange alien torpedoes. She barked out at her bridge crew.

"Status!"

"Ma'am, shields are gone! So are the capacitors and we have a leak on the third engine room...the enigmatic core was affected by whatever was inside that torpedo." the Tac Officer reported grimly as she listed out the damage. "Engineers report our FTL drive is offline as well as a possible collapse of the structural beams in engine room 2. We're dead in the water ma'am...they took out our sublight engines."

Silence reared its ugly head into the bridge as it took hold of the crew. They each looked to one another with clear sign of fear yet their innate warrior spirit forbidded them from voicing out that fear. Mostly it was worry that gripped their hearts, worry that they may (in this case will definitely) not see their loved ones anymore, but they took comfort in knowing that their death would be avenged.

The Comm Officer perked up when he picked up a transmission, it was an intercepted transmission from somewhere within the enemy communications array. His eyes seemed to sink back into his head as he heard the translated version of the communique, from his expression alone the crew immediately within his terminal area knew death was upon them.

The captain saw this but nevertheless encouraged the crew of her ship to press on...they would take down as many of the alien ships with them as possible.

* * *

 **Outside...**

 **(Turian fleet POV)**

Five turian frigates wolfed in on the silent drifting hull of the _Lover's Quarrel_ and positioned themselves above and below it so that they were not within range of the swerving turrets. They had long since figured out that their opponents' turret mounted weapons had a 360 degree rotary view of the field of battle yet had somehow neglected to include an arching degree to their design, this the turians used to full effect and launched attacks by flying directly below the relatively slow frigates or above them. The blindsides were compensated for by high maneuverability but the turian frigates toyed around with the corvettes in this regard and probably saved a few of their frigates but still suffered heavy losses to the directed energy weapons.

Not unlike their GUARDIAN point defense pulse lasers, their foe utilized larger versions on their forward turrets whilst the last two were more like rapid fire mass accelerators that were pitiful when compared with the mass effect spinal guns of the frigates. However, these weapons proved just as effective when they cut through a frigate unlucky enough to cross between two of the enemy frigate-analogues and was caught in the resulting cross fire of rapid firing slugs which, although barred by the kinetic barriers, were able to force the barrier to dissipate and then proceeded to carve right through the ablative armor of the turian frigate. Added with their laser weapons which pass right through the barriers, the frigate had no chance and was cut into pieces along with all hands.

However, this time the turians get to exact vengeance for their downed comrades, with fury, and with a well coordinated strike their mass accelerators opened up and poured into the corvette. Its shields down and effectively dead in the water, the ship had no chance but by some sort of miracle, the enemy ship rotated on its axis with its turrets facing towards the turian frigates and opened fire.

This maneuver exposed its already weakened sides but a few rounds from the turian frigates passed harmlessly by and rapidly shot towards their own ships on either side. Two frigates blocked the rounds with their kinetic barriers but both lost that layer of protection and a third was completely destroyed as the projectile pierced through the weak front armor and plowed through walls to only end up smashing into the ship's core. The resulting implosion caught another frigate alongside it and that caused it to exploded on its starboard side and listed heavily to the left having lost power to life support, weapons and other essential systems, including engines.

The Turians within this wolf pack could only watch in horror, frustration and unfettered anger as their friends and possibly mates or those they knew, died in a fiery ball of white hot flame. Their ships fought with renewed vigor but were matched in that regard by the alien ship whose laser weapon turrets struggled to maintain a fire rate sufficient enough to keep up with the turian main weapon which fired around two second intervals. Their rapid fire, almost machine gun-like, mass accelerator turrets targeted a frigate each, and with only three turian frigates left they managed to inflict high amounts of damage before a lucky shot from one of the frigates tore through the stern of the ship and possibly hit something critical.

There, a few thousand kilometers (below/above) in front of them, the alien ship in all its ugly rectangular design, exploded in a great fireball of exotic matter and debris. The remaining frigates of the wolf pack scattered and limped back through the protective lines of their cruisers, one heavily damaged with two of its engines out of commission, the second losing most of its prow due to the intense heat of the laser turret-reports indicated massive loss of life aboard-while the third frigate had extreme damage across its hull where several holes were visible to the naked eye, the three ships were not the only ones to have been dealt a heavy blow as several sister frigates returned scarred by heavy mass rounds or burned by lasers.

The first round of the battle had finished and already the frigate lines were being decimated by the aliens. Their use of DEWs was a surprise after the first encounter as the turians expected mass salvos of missile projectiles, which disgustingly used WMDs (specifically, nuclear in nature), and the revelation of laser mounted turrets that dealt an excessive amount of damage against their armor was concerning, most of all since the weapon completely disregards kinetic barriers.

They had to come up with counter measures against them but the time that would take frustrated the Hierarchy when the reports reached them after the first round of engagement. The admiral in charge of overall command wished to deploy his dreadnoughts but the sight of the enemy's 22 dreadnoughts along with the super-dreadnought deterred him from this line of action...perhaps now was a good time to move his heavy hitters in?

All they knew was that the enemy was outnumbered yet they clearly had better shielding, although the disruptors did prove most effective against them, the number of torpedoes was finite and should be used against strategically viable targets, like the dreadnoughts and cruisers for example. The turians were thus surprised when the enemy frigates rushed froward once more, this time ignoring the frigate screen and began pulling off maneuvers that made even the most self-conscious pilot roar out in anger or jealousy, such movement was not possible for ships not using eezo to affect the mass of their ship...without it they would be torn apart by the immense gravitational force. Yet these aliens surprised the turians all the same and began loosing salvos of torpedoes...among the same projectiles used during the first engagement.

Pulse lasers of the GUARDIAN point defense variety, came to life as VI strained and gunners strained to fight off the wave of incoming torpedoes. They exclaimed in anger and confusion as the PD lasers missed when the torpedoes suddenly and most surprisingly shot out of the way of incoming laser bolts, the projectiles merely weaved through the heavy clout of laser fire while a few did get blown out, the projectiles also had the added benefit of being smaller than their missile counterparts. This bonus allowed for a lot of them to pass through the screen and made impact against the kinetic barriers, the explosions blinded every sensor within the blast radius.

Scanners sounded radiation alarms across the turian fleet as the warheads within the torpedoes showed high amounts of thermonuclear radiation a hundred times more powerful than even their current nuclear arsenal.

For the next two hours several of the turians' cruisers suffered heavy losses alongside their frigate escorts. The enemy's ships used in this underhanded attack were largely unharmed but even then had lost a handful of their ships to heavy concentrated barrage of mass rounds launched at lightspeed, even with their commendable maneuverability and shields they were no match for the turians' own and met with heavy resistance with further probes into their defense lines. The enemy cruisers suffered heavy damage across fifteen of them when they moved in to relieve a few of their stranded frigates but their firepower was vastly proven to be much more devastating when in mid to close range as proven when a single enemy cruiser took down four turian cruisers on its own and its shields were not even close to breaking. Only with the combined effort of atleast fourteen frigates and another eight cruisers was the shield broken and the cruiser received damage to three of its forward turrets and its port hull.

Both fleets pulled back to their lines to lick their wounds but the damage was done. With several losses within the turian fleet, where a thousand ships had once graced the Xaxrix system with their presence now numbered a little over 890 vessels. Communications was also cut off by the enemy using some sort of jamming signal that the VIs and dedicated hackers and specialists were working to untangle. But it would seem like the enemy fleet, even with their small numbers, was outfitted with weapons dedicated to fighting larger ships. As is evidenced by their heavy use of nuclear ordinance.

 **Aboard the Turian Dreadnought** _ **Great Myrmidon.**_

 **Bridge**

It wasn't a surprise to the Turiam fleet when the aliens arrived in the system. Hell, the admiral wasn't surprised by this, what he was surprised at was the number of ships that came through the relay, he had expected a fleet twice or maybe three times the size of the first one they had encountered in the system they lost but not the same amount of ships encountered during the first fight, granted most of them were frigates. Admiral LayekKorianus, a politician by trade but forced into the military by his overbearing father, but even if he refused, it was mandatory for every turian who came of age to enlist in the military and serve a minimum few years of service. So it was with great pleasure and mirth that he found himself promoted to Admiral after a few decades of his career. He had been just a mid ranking flight officer serving on the bridge when he, along with several others, was deployed with a suppression fleet to pacify a certain race some twenty something years ago. That was a first contact scenario gone to shit and now he was reliving it all over again.

Tensing visibly whenever a new report would come in with details of a frigate lost to enemy fire or in one case, friendly fire, he hung his head low and deeply sighed, he was exhausted and his chest was aching from the wound he got during the short war with the humans all those years ago. He absentmindedly rubbed the spot where the wound was and closed his eyes, mandibles twitching every few seconds, a tick of frustration and irritation he developed a few months back. He groaned when his onmi-tool pinged with a new alert.

The message was nothing new but he saw that instead of losing his frigates left and right he did a human equivalent of a grin and his eyes seem to lit up. He'd been given the order by the Primarch to begin deploying his dreadnoughts and no doubt they will be an asset to his fleet. But the losses his fleet had sustained was taking its toll on morale and the limited resources they had at their disposal, not everything could be replaced and lives is top on that list. In fact, he had steeled his nerves and discarded his emotion to engulf himself within it later on, when he heard of the death of his best friend, a Captain of the Frigate named _Orsinus_. Captain TranouFeryak, a turian fighter pilot with a knack for field command, was promoted to a full frigate captain just a year ago but now he was gone….he had been a commander of a proud ship with a long history behind it and had not even two years in his new command and now he was gone.

It seemed almost selfish for the admiral to just file away that part of his psyche but he had to, he had a whole fleet of turians who all depend on him and his orders to get through this mess. He had to keep his nerves from forcing a meltdown on him, he was supposed to be the epitome of Turian military discipline and pride but he will mourn for his friend and the dead later. Now he had to focus his attention on getting his dreadnoughts in position to begin their long range attack against the enemy's cruisers.

"Send fleet orders to move dreadnoughts to max range and pick targets." Admiral Korianuscommanded, his voice emotionless and his stoic expression did nothing but affirm to his crew that he was determined to see this through, today they had shown that this new and hostile alien race was not invincible. They will show them the meaning of fear and why angering the turians was not a good idea. They outnumber them by a significant margin but they will destroy this new enemy with concise and well thought out plans that will make the most of the turians' strengths and the enemy's weaknesses.

"Orders received and acknowledged by dreadnought captains, sir." The communications officers reported with a salute and went back to working on monitoring their comm lines.

"Good. I just hope the spirits are with us this day…" Layek prayed as he watched the tactical display show his fleet moving its formation to provide room for the dreadnoughts to get in position. Cruisers responded with moving to the sides of the bigger ships to provide cover fire and possible shield overlaps. The frigates moved in between to provide better coverage of their GUARDIAN PD systems. The remainder, the damaged ships totalling over fifty, remained in the rear of the formation. Without even reading the full report, Admiral Korianus knew they were too badly damaged to be salvageable and will have to be scuttled but one or two may yet be saved….except for the lives lost, those can never be replaced.

He just wished this doesn't escalate into a full blown war, the mistake was on their part when the captain of the patrol group in the system where that massive relay was found fired on the lone civilian corvette analogue. There was a brief moment in the original log of the captain's ship where the aliens had tried to communicate and had indeed managed to get a message across, albeit garbled and not understandable. Its still taking time for the linguists back home to find a viable way to translate the damned alien language but it was so bogged up with static and unknown or unintelligible words the scholars, Salarians and Asari alike, couldn't figure it out and the fact that they didn't seem to be using eezo was disconcerting and therefore begs the questions; did these aliens not know who the Protheans were and how is it that they are able to have such advanced technology without developing Mass Effect technology?

To be brutally honest, Leyak couldn't care less about that bullshit. He just wanted the aliens to either give him and his men a break, he beat the living crap out of them or he gets ordered to retreat and save the rest of his men and ships before things get really out of control.

"Sir, the enemy are deploying the rest of their cruisers." Tactical alerted him and his eyes darted to the display. Indeed there was movement on the alien's part, their cruisers were rapidly moving towards his fleet, impressive speed but was still not as fast as their own sublight engines.

"Have our cruisers and frigates form a defensive perimeter around the dreadnoughts, but far enough for us to break formation should they launch their nuclear payload." Admiral Korianus' innate tactical mind played out several scenarios that may end in his favour but he couldn't see it….not yet anyways.

"Sir, dreadnoughts are in position. Cruiser targets have been marked and all ships ready to fire on your mark."

There was a long and tense silence in the moment the Admiral contemplated on one more scenario then his eyes flickered open and he barked, "FIRE!"

* * *

 ***"Attention!" (Pronounced:** _ **A-key-young)**_

 **Okay that's it for now….I've run out of time and money since I still haven't found a new replacement for my laptop. I'm uploading or have uploaded this from an Internet Café where the owner is a stuck up whiny little bitch….okay that explanation doesn't do this woman justice but I'm generally a nice guy so I won't comment more on that.**

 **Moving on…**

 **I would like to thank AlucardBellsing, for the names of the ships he provided me. I also would like to say to someone other than whom I mentioned here that I am saving the name you suggested for another dreadnought, not the ones I put in this chapter but in another one further along the way.**

 **Also, as some people have pointed out, this story is a crack fic with a HFY attached to it and while a lot of you are okay with it like that, me included, I have also gotten some concerns from other readers that this is not a good direction for me to lead this story and frankly I am at a loss. From the other ME fanfics that I've read, a lot of which I have seen their authors' responses to this kind of dilemma, I am inclined to try and balance things out. However, to combat this, I have decided to only balance out the effects of weapons from either side, I don't know if my description of Mass Effect Distruptor torpedoes is correct or not but I expect some form of feed back on it.**

 **Seeing as how many of you guys are conflicted with each other on which direction this story should go, some want this to remain as it is, while others want a more thought out serious outlook on it. I will let a poll (an official one) decide the fate of this story. The result will affect the future of this story or be left as it is (a HFY crack fic). Thank you all for the reviews and I await your reply.**

 **Although I'll still keep the first two chapters as they are seeing as that's what got people to look at this thing in the first place but the third one….well I'll just leave that there.**

 **Now a question or questions to all of you:**

 **1\. Should I include romance in this? Though it will be limited and won't go into too much detail like the blacked out s*x scenes in the game or intimate/deeply personal scenes between two subjects. It will only indicate who gets to hook up with whom and minor details. (This doesn't cover the occasional awkward situations like the one from the second chapter-which I may or may not write in as a sort of….what was the term? I think it was Omake? Yeah…whatever that means.)**

 **2\. How much of ground warfare should I show? The Stellaris game doesn't get into much detail in this field except to show you stats of how the battle is going so its pretty much going to be up to my imagination and that's what I'm good at! Fair warning: I may go over the top with the armoured vehicles of the Covenant but I'd like to hear your suggestions on tanks and APCs.**

 **3\. Be honest, did I or did I not buggered this chapter?**

 **I've decided on a new slogan for my presidential campaign: "What the Masses want….the Masses get!"**

 **In other news…**

 ***British reporter in London talking in a high pitched gravelly voice***

 **"A man** _ **exploded**_ **today….when he was hit by a double-decker bus!"**

 ***Pauses to catch breath***

 **"We have video footage!"**

 **Points to those who can tell me if they know who said this joke…I might not know the one you're talking about but if I do I'll let ya know when I post the next chapter.**

 **-Danen5….logging out.**


	5. Chapter 4: Battle of Xaxrix Pt2

**AN:** **Its been a while…**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing of Stellaris and Mass Effect and any contents that are mentioned that were found in the games in the first place. OCs and other events are either mine or inspired and credit where it's due.**

 **I've discovered something really weird recently, at least for me that is, when I watch youtube videos I hear people pronounce Stellaris as Ste-laar-ris. Whereas I got it in my head to say Ste-la-ris, sort of faster and clipped rather than elongating la with laar. You get me?**

 **Anyways on with the story!**

 **Also this story has reached another milestone of sorts with over 10k views, 100+ Favs and Follows, I'd like to thank those who did the latter two and for any who have viewed or read the story this far. I salute thee in the name of further readings…**

 **PS: Feel free to review or PM, all sorts are invited though keep the flames at a constructive level, ciao**

 **With Gratitude,  
Danen5**

 **=(0)=**

 **Xaxrix System  
2183**

 **51** **st** **Fleet/** ** _Holy Breach_** **  
Bridge of the Flagship** **  
** _ **Breach**_

Admiral Vandersen watched intently as the enemy xenos began their move. It wasn't as aggressive as he'd expected but not overly defensive either. His eyes flickered over the data flooding in as more and more of the larger, cruiser analogues went about their formation and then it clicked. He grinned and began issuing orders to the bridge and overall, to his fleet.

"Deploy destroyer packs to flanks above and below make sure they're ready for fire intercept if need be, and target those cruisers with the Javelins and Torpedo cruisers." He ordered. Then adding, "And somebody get me Captains Hill and Morand on the line. Its about time their ships get here."

"Sir, Captain Hill is online." Com Officer Uriel reported after a moment, however he frowned as he said, "Captain Morand seems to be off grid sir."

"Captain Hill, where is Captain Morand?" Harald Vandersen asked the holographic visage of the officer as he looked in confusion at his superior officer before replying in a crisp but heavily accented basic.

"Am zowry, Kapzn. Bot hoiv not zzeen Kapzn Morad." The Admiral blinked once before understanding what was said.

"Great. The next part of my plan won't work without him and his ship here." Harald muttered to himself before he dismissed the Captain, ' _Bloody Cadonians and their stupid accents_ ' he thought. "Maintain current position, Captain. Await further orders until needed." The line disconnected and he turns to look at his XO with a grimace as he contemplated his next words before sighing dejectedly, ' _Its decided…I cannot have incompetence endanger the lives of my fleet, I just hope he's got a good lawyer or thick hide._ '. "Find Captain Morand and make sure to add his name to the _list_."

FO Merallus simply nodded but inside he cringed, the _list_ , as not so eloquently put was the _death note_ so to speak wherein the names of the officers are put in and when submitted, they are either court martialed and sentenced to prison or disappear never to be seen again. Meanwhile the Admiral turned his attention back to the battle happening outside…viewing it safely from the bridge of his ship as the Tactical display showed numerous engagements across the space they occupied as their battlefield.

With AI assistance the survivability of his ships as well as weapons management and systems repairs and predicting algorithms of enemy attack patterns were analyzed in precious nano seconds before being projected into his NeLI implant in order for him to determine a course of action. For now, he saw what the enemy were trying to do, and it pleased him that they were leaving their most ships vulnerable to his next attack. Even if the enemy were to somehow escape the nukes from the Javelins or the Neutron implosions of the Torpedo cruisers, they sure weren't going to outrun the mass salvo of whirlwind missiles. If the projections are correct then it will surely catch the buggers off guard.

"Admiral, Javelin and Torpedo cruisers are at max range. Awaiting orders for mass salvo." The tactical officer announced.

"Granted."

Within seconds hundreds if not thousands of whirling and twirling missiles stormed their way out of their turrets and barreling through the void at relativistic speeds. Each missile was programmed to follow a twirling circular formation that allows for increased dodging of enemy point defense fire but this also means the missiles are a tad little inaccurate but who cares as long as the lot of them crash and burn the enemy ship!

Seconds after that the enemy cruisers opened fire, and the Admiral's eyes flew open when the first hundred round bore right through his corvettes' shields, granted they're not that powerful but for them to be fully destroyed in the first volley was humiliating for any Covenant naval commander.

"Move the bloody corvettes!" He barked at his crew who issued his orders through the NeLI.

Evasive maneuvers saved his corvettes any further damage but his slower cruisers suffered heavy shield and hull damages from the enemy's spinal shots. The bigger ships were a problem he had to deal with as soon as possible. Their weapons may not be that great but they pack a mean punch, the data coming in after being studied carefully by the AI shows that the enemy's spinal mass accelerator had a much more concentrated firepower equal to one of their lower yield nukes but combined with several handful of other similar rounds and it'd be like a Neutron going boom in the middle of a fracking city! Not a good sign.

"Initiate Maneuver 9, have the cruisers form a shield around us. Move the Destroyers with corvette escorts to these sectors here and here." He manipulated the tac display to specify his orders and was immediately met with a dozen 'yes sirs'. "Have our fighter and bomber squadrons harass the enemy corvettes behind their lines, target any stragglers or wounded ships, give these xenos no quarters for the lives they've took."

"Aye, Admiral." The TAC officer affirmed as he sent out the orders. Several pings and a chime echoed across his terminal, "Orders received and acknowledged by all fighter and bomber squadrons, missions are a go."

"Good. Now…" Harald scrutinized the enemy position with enlightenment, cautious of their cruisers and the firepower they were able to bring to bear on his cruisers and corvettes but so far the destroyers were staying out of their fire range what with their constant harassment of the xeno flanks, the enemy commander surprised him there for a moment but he'll be ready with his next trick. In fact it may be the time for it. "Maverick."

" **Yes, Admiral.** " A synthetic and emotionless voice answered the call.

"Run Program 66, level EXTREME." He smiled, one of his more eviler grins and the FO wished he was somewhere else right that moment but could not help but be infected as a similar gnarly grin took hold of his face.

" **Affirmative.** "

The bridge crew fell silent, except for the sounds coming from the terminals and speakers and the tac display, as well as the humming of walls as the engine sang when dodging enemy fire or rumbling when the shield flared to life. One could hear a pin drop in that room full of shocked faces looking up at the Admiral. Then one by one their faces contorted to an unhealthy evil smirk as the affirmative was given. The xenos won't know what hit them, the unholy AI attack would devastate them…despite the banishment of AI research, the Holy One saw fit to reinstitute the study and deployment of AIs as part of the military organization. No one questioned the Holy Ones motives but the Priesthood that answered their god's request were a tad bit unnerved that He'd motioned for the AIs creation even after the last two rebellions they had faced from said synthetic lifeforms. Said rebellions lasted for a few weeks thanks to the Holy Ones timely intervention further cementing the Priesthood's power within society, but wholesale acceptance of the synthetics was at an all time low despite their usefulness. Now however the military saw the use of AIs as a necessary risk even if they clash head on with the Priesthood…after all who could deny the Holy's most hallowed decisions.

 **=0=**

 **Lance-Captain Dimitrevitch "** _ **Sweeper**_ **" Karkov  
Black Wings Squadron Leader**

If someone told him he'd be fighting for a cause greater than keeping insurrectionists in line, Dimitrevitch would have asked when and where and if the pay was good, but now he's not too sure whether or not he'd have retracted that statement. Ever since the new aliens were discovered he and his squadron had been drilling non-stop with new tactics and relearning old ones, his old flight commander had been tasked with organizing a new Wing Command and that included _Sweeper_ 's new squadron, the Black Wings which he had been given command of. All seven, including himself, are veteran pilots with one of the lowest death rates in any Wing Command. Having served for the last fifty years straight without a single loss, they are accredited with over 1000 kills of both pirates and insurrectionists.

Sweeper sighed silently as the chatter came in on his com. The static was messing with his HUD but with the NeLI system he was able to clear it out.

" _All pilots be advised, enemy corvettes are withdrawing from the field, pursue, cripple and destroy. Don't give them time to regroup, acknowledge orders_." The voice was no one he knew but the authoritative tone was enough for him to obey…atleast while he's stuck in his cockpit.

" _Yellow Wing here, we're low on fuel and ammo, RTB for R &R. We'll be back to finish the job ASAP._"

" _Union Wing, we lost half our squadron back there RTB for repairs. Will return to the field ASAP._ "

" _Thonatu Wing, we're bright and ready for action, just point the way and we're there!_ "

" _Kyros Wing, weapons hot and ready to kick some xeno ass!_ "

"Black Wing squadron acknowledging orders, they won't get far." Sweeper grinned as he adjusted the controls of his starfighter and engaged the afterburners. The Mk. 3 Starfighter is a top of the line fighting vessel capable of atmospheric and voidborne combat able to withstand heavy fire and durable enough to survive a nuclear blast, a direct hit would prove fatal though. It had been field tested extensively by the navy for its pilots and so far the only major flaw it had was fuel consumption.

It burned through fuel like a wildfire consuming it in a single forward thrust, then it was discovered that this caused a side effect that melts the armor plating at the rear of the fighter. The R&D tech experts went to work to negate this massive setback, of course a new design could have been made but the Starfighter was too good a fighting vessel to pass up so they worked diligently to find a solution.

Currently the latest design called for more efficient ways to burn fuel allowing for less consumption, however, that still presents a problem with current chemical and non-chemical formulas that were either too ludicrous or too theoretical to put into practice. So in the fine tradition of many custom jobs done by the naval mechanics and pilots, they slapped on extra fuel tanks on the bottom hull of their fighters. Risky but it allowed for more flight times and in one pilots opinion….a really great firework show.

Sweeper commed in to his squadron's NeLI network and issued commands for his wingmen to form on him. Their formation flew across the void avoiding projectiles, missiles and enemy fighters. The dogfight had largely been a one sided affair due the energy shields providing protection for the Starfighter, but even then that could only go so far and the enemy's weapons were rather effective at knife fighting range, especially their knockoff neutron torpedoes. Those things packed an impressive punch and as with anything to do with dark matter it would implode an object not explode.

"Enemy fighter squadron forming on us. Thonatu, provide support for our bombers." Sweeper sent the order and the Thonatu Wing leader complied, if not due to rank then experience. "Kyros Wing keep those fighters from our flanks, Black Wing will engage corvettes, let's get them boys and girls!"

A cheer erupted over the coms as the fighters and bombers went to work.

Enemy corvettes were tricky buggers, nimble and ridiculously fast, the bombers had a hard time getting through their defenses but their shields held up long enough for them to deliver their payloads and up went fifteen Turian corvettes in wondrous spectacles of brightly colored lights.

" _Ah dammit! I got fighters on my si_ —" Black 6, a modified StarFighter/Bomber, went silent as his ship was blown to smithereens by Turian fighters, strange design but really hard to catch when they are zooming around the place. Not enough to escape Starfighter autoguns and laser cannons, Sweeper growled and swore as another of his wingmen died. The enemy had gotten smart and had concentrated their corvette PDF sphere and obliterating his squadron and the others, their fighters coming in and picking apart his formation.

" _Thonatu leader is down! We're bugging out!_ " Thonatu 4 screamed into her com as she weaved around enemy projectiles, Sweeper watching her six trying to lock onto the bogey behind her but was too late as her fighter imploded from a direct hit by enemy neutron torpedo. He locked on at last and blasted the Turian out of the sky but didn't feel any better at having lost another comrade, this was war was beginning to heat up and things weren't going quite as planned, he sincerely hoped that this attack was worth the lives it took.

"All Wings disengage! RTB now!" Sweeper bellowed as he turned his fighter around just as the enemy began closing in on him. ' _This is going to be a looong day._ '

 **=(0)=**

 **4 hours later…**

 **Xaxrix System**

 **Turian Dreadnought:** _ **Great Myrmidon**_

 **Bridge**

Admiral Korianus watched in triumphant glee, his mandibles tightening with firm belief in his ships' abilities to bring the enemy pain, as the alien fleet lost several of their frigates and the number of dreadnoughts they fielded were either crippled or heavily damaged but still operational if unable to move. His eyes focused on the enemy's single super dreadnought at the back of their fleet, unmoving and unnerving as it was it seemed to only sit there doing nothing but he knew that with any fleet a flagship must always be present to maintain a constant stream of orders to maintain fleet cohesion.

"Admiral, enemy missiles are on approach, our targeting systems are locked on but there seems to be interference coming from the missiles themselves…7 minutes until impact." His TAC officer reported, eyes never leaving the holographic projection in front of his terminal.

"Admiral we're getting reports of enemy fighters and bombers on our rear and flanks, their targeting our inoperable ships!" Someone screamed out as the tactical projector displayed several small triangles moving in on larger ones marked friendly by their IFF tags.

"Get our reserve frigates to intercept and have our fighter contingent meet these dishonorable scum!" Admiral Korianus barked out his orders which were instantly followed to the letter. The display showed his fleets fighters intercept the enemy but were too late to save fifteen of the more heavily damaged frigates…more lives lost in this fight to hold the system. He didn't know what else to do but await further orders from Palaven High Command but if failing that he didn't want to risk losing his entire fleet against what is clearly a superior force, however reluctantly he admitted that fact.

His Turian pride and his concern for his men battering against the stoic mask he'd put up at the beginning of this battle. He also needed to inform the Council and Palaven of the enemy's incursion into Turian space, he could not see a victory aside from a pyrrhic one, to use a human term.

"Admiral sir! Something's wrong!" His tech officer yelled as he frantically typed into the holo projected keyboard and then moved onto his wrist mounted omnitool. "Our computer systems are being attacked by an outside source! Our Vis are unable to cope with the amount of data junk being dumped into the system…sir! Other ships in the fleet are reporting similar cyber attacks."

It only took a moment to realize that the enemy had resorted to cyberwarfare but to do so with such efficiency, the Admiral could only gape at the horror of facing the truth…the aliens were using AIs. How did he know it was an AI? Well it may have been the fact that the aforementioned AI had made itself known when it appeared as a holoprojection on the tactical display.

The thing had taken on a human form as it stared around it for a moment before speaking in perfect Turian, " **Greetings xenos, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience but I've orders to scuttle your fleet…no hard feelings.** "

Layek Korianus, Admiral of the Turian fleet watched in despair as the AI entity took control of his ship's electronic systems and began a systematic purge of the ship's life support systems. He choked as the air around him began to fade replaced with nothing, he glared with all his rage directed at the holo image of the AI which had the gall to grin at them all before flickering out.

' _I will not die here…I can't let them win…I ha-ha-have to save…save…._ ' Layek knew his consciousness was slipping away but he fought on as his vision began to darken. He caught glimpses of his tech officer at his terminal working furiously on his omnitool and just before the Admiral lost his sight he gasped in a deep breath looking gratefully towards the brave Turian who'd saved his life and those on this ship.

"What is your name, son?" Layek asked the young officer who took in deep breaths as he looked around him.

"Hylak Fedonus, Admiral." He supplied with a small birdlike smile, as far as the human equivalent is concerned.

"You saved a lot of good Turians today, Hylak."

"Thank you sir but we still have to take back the ship's systems from the AI. I've managed to isolate it but its fighting back and its winning. Sir, I suggest we retreat…I know its not Turian but we're outpowered in terms of technology and with an AI on their side we're going to lose more lives and ships if we continue this fight."

There was logic in the officer's statement but even then the system was a strategic defense point that Palaven was not willing to let fall into the enemy's hands that easily. His decision would prove to be a wise one to this day.

"Order the fleet to fall back to the Relay. We're getting out of this system!" He ordered as he got back off his feet, not having remembered when he'd fallen on the floor since he'd been too focused on breathing or atleast trying to. The battle had claimed more lives than he wanted to risk and not to mention the ships, his entire fleet moved away from the battlefield and micro jumped to a set rendezvous point that he'd set up prior to the battle. "Give me a sitrep!"

"We lost nearly three quarters of our frigates, a third of our cruisers and more than half of our dreradnoughts…Admiral." His second in command reported the grim news, there was a palpable silence on the bridge of his ship, the damage from the AI was not too significant hardware-wise but his tech officer was having a hard time recalibrating and repairing key software and electronic systems that run the ship. "We've reports that most of our personnel that managed to jettison their lifepods were…shot down."

"Thousands…we lost thousands…" Someone kept muttering those words to themselves as Leyak looked around his bridge crew, crestfallen and wishing he didn't have to leave anyone else to die…but the fleet must be saved for further conflict with these unknowns and now that its been revealed they were using AIs, the situation was becoming more grim and dangerous. Whoever these aliens were they needed to be beaten…if takes a bloody war to do this…to protect all of Citadel space then Leyak knew that all bets were off. The Council was bound to act now that the enemy have proven unwilling to talk and were hell bent on destruction.

"Sir, Palaven Command has sent in a transmission…" Admiral Korianus' thoughts were interrupted by an ensign who saluted him and returned to his station.

"Get the fleet through the relay and then take a full account of the fleet. I want to know more than just summaries of our…situation." The Admiral turned around after giving his final orders as he left the bridge/CIC and made his way to the QEC room, ' _What in Spirits' name happened back there_?' was his thoughts as the elevator doors opened and he entered it.

 **=(0)=**

 **Meanwhile…**

 **Unknown Location  
TNS Battleship: **_**Scion of the Apocalypse**_

 **5th Psi Com  
Major Nathan Vandersen (3** **rd** **POV)**

Waking up with a splitting headache was not something he expected to face come early morning before PT but nonetheless he was having a bad start of the day. Hand grabbing his throbbing head he opened his eyes with a snap as he felt the warm blood trickle down between his fingers. ' _Odd…how'd that happen?_ ' he wondered as his sight gradually returned to him followed by his hearing. What greeted him was a hellstorm of activity in the barracks where he was bunking in on the battleship…what was its name again…oh yeah the _Apocalypse_ , kind of a gloomy name but then again the military did have a dark outlook on things at best.

After the ringing in his ears stopped he saw a couple of guys in his unit hastily getting into their gear as he moved to do the same, he was a bit wobbly on his feet for the moment so he used the bunk beds to steady himself. Glancing to one of the men he could pick up the distant blaring of the alarms and the red emergency lights bathing the room in their dull colors. One of the men tried to get his attention and succeeded but the words he was saying sounded far off and echoed in his head.

"I can't hear you…" Nathan spoke, his voice was throaty and weak, its as if he hadn't drank anything in a week. He tried again getting a clear message across and the man nodded. When his hearing finally adjusted to his surroundings the alarms caused him to curse as it took him by surprise.

"Sir! You need to get geared up." The same man spoke again, this time his voice near and clear. Nathan nodded and made his way to his designated locker, opening and grabbing his gear he fumbled a bit with the harnesses to his combat chestplate and greaves before adding the shoulder pauldrons and combat issue boots along with the shin guards and then clipped on the power cores to his weapon in their pouches along his abdominal guard and belt. He picked up a sidearm and attached that to the maglock on his right thigh then leaned in and picked up the standard but heavily customized Light Rifle.

" _All personnel report to your stations! This is NOT a drill! I repeat this is NOT a drill! All hands prepare for boarding action!_ " The PA system crackled to life spouting the words out in loud static ridden sentence before cutting off again.

"What happened?" Nathan asked the two Psi Commandos as he applied the Sealant Gel on the small crack in his skull where the blood was slowly flowing down the side of his face. They looked at one another and the same one that had talked to him before answered him.

"We don't know, sir. One moment, Kel and I here were facing off in an arm wrestling competition when suddenly shit went downhill." The man identified as Kel nodded, Nathan noticed the odd choice in visor gear as it was unusually reflective but other than that he was a normal Psi Grunt. The man he was talking to looked like any other average Psi Grunt but the customized color scheme of his pauldrons (a bright neon red) made him stand out…a sniper would agree with him on that.

"No sniper can get me that easily, sir." The man boasted but looked sheepish enough for having read the Major's mind…not intentionally of course but Nathan bristled visibly enough for him to pick up on that mistake. "Sorry sir it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't but it just goes to show I've got to be mindful of what I broadcast on the subconscious, don't I?" Nathan gave a slight smile as he said this, he projected a calming Psi field towards the Grunt who gave him a grateful nod. "By the way, you said your buddy's name is Kel, what about you?"

"Oh right Corporal Gory Henson. I'm in your unit, Tank Squad." The corporal saluted lazily.

"I'm Corporal Kel Droma." The other man saluted as he greeted the Major. Nathan didn't know what to think of his two squad mates, on the one hand they seemed professional enough but on the other they were near borderline disrespectful of the Military Codes when in the presence of a superior officer. Their attitude may have something to do with the current emergency though.

"What can you tell about what's going on?" Nathan asked as he mechanically put on his gear. Pulling out his weapons, a gauss assault rifle with a LDEW sidearm and a bandolier with six grenades attached to it.

"EMP burst from an unknown muscolloid ship," a new voice answered the Major as he turned to see that a woman, nearing her prime, made her presence known. She saluted at him and he returned the gesture. "Sergeant Rainer Yamda, XO of Tank Squad. Though I have to wonder why they thought a newbie would be a good idea to lead this squad."

"Excuse me?" Nathan bristled with annoyance, he didn't know who exactly this woman thought she was but he was no newbie. "I'll have yo—"

"Less talk, Major, there's a situational crisis going here." She pointed out rather smugly too which annoyed him all the more as he glared at her rather insubordinate behavior yet powerless at the moment to do anything about it. Both Kel and Gory glanced nervously at each other before silently and stealthily moving away.

Nathan looked for options on how to deal with his apparent XO at a later date but nodded affirmation, conceding to her point for now. They finished settling in their gear before heading out of the barracks alongside other squads, Nathan couldn't help but notice that he was short three more members of his own squad. He sent a mental query to Sgt. Yamda who seemed annoyed at having the mental link established.

" _Sergeant, where are the rest of my squad?_ " He put an emphasis on _his_ for good measure and sure enough he saw her visibly shudder, he got the feeling that she wasn't too keen on having been passed over for command but decided not to antagonize her too much, for the moment.

" _The others were in the mess hall when shit hit the fan. They're probably decked out in temporary gear as of right now._ " She informed him and abruptly cut off the link before running further away from him. Nathan could only shake his head as he watched her put distance between them. He didn't know why the woman was so intent of disobeying as much of his orders and effectively proving difficult to deal with.

"She'll come around eventually." Nathan only nodded as Gory ran beside him. He doubted she would but if he wants this squad to be cohesive then he needed to get on the sergeant's good graces.

A few minutes later Nathan and his squad along with two others were split off by a grim looking Colonel, he directed his squad and the other two towards the landing bays on the port side of the deck they were on, which for the life of him he couldn't remember which one he was on. He was a grunt Holy One damn it! Not a jock!

" _All personnel be advised! Enemy boarding parties have breached the hulls, designated areas of the breaches have been determined, your mission is to repel boarders and buy us time for the reactors to come back online!_ " The PA system came to life and just as fast it spouted out the orders, it stopped.

Major Nathan Vandersen, of the 5th Psi Commando Unit, waited in anticipation as the unknown enemies begun their breach into the landing bay airlocks. He and the other squad leaders had set their heavy gunners to pointing weapons at the doors. However, his psionics had instilled in him the precaution needed to ascertain weakness in the walls around the airlocks and found likely points of possible breaches which proved correct. Having set their gunners on all three breach points the wait soon ended when the simultaneous explosions came with heavily concentrated hail of bullets that hit and then breached the shielding of the gunners manning the heavy guns.

The reserve gunners took their fallen comrades' positions and returned fire almost immediately and spraying the inside of the holes with plasma and laser bolts followed by thrown fragmentation grenades from their supports. The intense firefight that followed as three hulking metal figures with digigrade reverse legs and a unique head framing a single circle of white light brandishing and firing large pulsating pseudo plasma bolts at the soldiers who ducked behind cover.

Nathan let loose a torrent of gauss rounds at one of the three giant synthetics and caused its shield to flicker until it gave out under the sheer firepower behind the shots, the gunners soon tore it to shreds and it was followed soon after by the others. Several more, smaller versions, came out of the breaches firing away at the squads which began to drastically become overwhelmed when the enemy came flooding out and deployed drones. Nathan and his squad barely made it out of the landing bay with four members of the other two squads. They had superior tech and weapons but the enemy's numbers had been too much for all three squad to effectively thin down when their gunners were targeted specifically and then their supports. Nathan's squad had lost Corporal Gory and the other three along with Sergeant Yamda whom Nathan had looked forward to getting to know more about, even if he didn't like her or vice versa. "Look out!" The warning came too late as they burst around the corner only to be met with a group of similar giant synthetics decked out in black colors and wielding larger versions of the pulse plasma bolters the smaller versions carried. Nathan rolled into cover as three bolts struck the empty space he'd left. Corporal Kel shouted out, "Grenade!" as he lobbed one of the circular EMP grenades at the enemy.

The effect was immediate and pleasing as the synthetics all shook and their circuits became fried as the stress of being shocked by billions of volts of EMP induced lightning overcame their chassis and innards. Nathan walked up to one and picked up the pulse plasma bolter, looking it over he scoffed at the design as being too primitive but he couldn't deny its effectiveness against their shields. On the other hand he couldn't help but ponder the synthetics' own shielding systems as being similar to that of the enemy ships the ship they were on was supposed to fight alongside the 51st Fleet.

Perhaps it was a coincidence but he wasn't dumb enough to believe that. "Everyone move out," he said as he put down the weapon and gripped his own more tightly. "The other squads may have had difficulty in dealing with them similar to us so expect them around each corner. Confirm?"

A round of yeses later he and the men under his command, those of his own and the remainders of the other squads, made their way around the deck encountering small outbreaks of retreating firefights against the synthetics, he rallied what soldiers he found and with his psionic abilities were able to overcome small groups of enemy combatants. They managed to retake the deck after going room to room clearing out the boarders, until the PA crackled to life and a frantic voice screamed into it.

" _They're in the bridge! Somebody get a bead on that! All available personnel make your way to the bridge! We can't let these flash heads to get vital intel!"_ An explosion interrupted the man before screams could be heard. " _All hands we're scuttling the ship! Engineering has been overrun and the AI Core is being compromised! Abandon ship if you can but stay on fight if you want! For the Holy One!_ " The man on the PA didn't bother to cut the line as his battle cry echoed through the hallways as Nathan and those who have followed him made their way back to the landing bays.

"Everyone get into the transports!" Nathan shouted, out of the 450 soldiers stationed on this deck alone, only about 37 of that number was left alive. He hoped that the others and the crew are able to make it to any ships in time as the PA announced 5 minutes until self destruct.

Suddenly he was launched off his feet and into the air as the transport he was standing next to exploded into a fireball of heat and shrapnel riddling him with bits of said shrapnel and his left arm severed at the elbow. His face felt like melting off and he couldn't see out of his left eye. He cried out in agony as he tried to move but coughed up blood instead. His vision was filled with a bright light as he gazed up into the single circle of light looking down at him. He gurgled on his blood as he cursed and spat at the synthetic only for his vision to be filled with fire and then abruptly darkness.

 **=(0)=**

 **This is short and frankly not my best work since I'm sort of balancing cases and fanfiction at the moment but rest assured that I will continue this at the earliest time possible with a very big twist that will no doubt affect the story in its entirety starting with me including the new Stellaris Cherryh 2.0.1 update and its features.**

 **Update time will vary depending on the situation that I find myself in, or when the time allows me to write more thoroughly if somewhat hastily.**

 **Thank you all for reading and until next time.**


	6. Chapter 5: Reset

**Disclaimer:**

 **I don't own Stellaris or Mass Effect and anything associated with them other than OCs and some random stuff. Also I don't own SOASE and Homeworld and any other RTS features that belong to them. (Added for story telling purposes)**

 **AN:  
This chapter will feel a little like a rewrite but I've kept the main elements that I started with except with wide a wide variety of differences RTS-wise, think of this as an alternate (Stellaris) timeline where similar or not so similar events occurred right up until the Geth boarded the battleship Nathan was on in the last chapter, comments are welcome but anyways on with the story…**

 **PS:**

 **I left a lot easter eggs in this chapter see if you can spot them...**

 **=/\=**

 **Early 2018  
0850 hrs**

I was notified of one of my un-merged ships going dark, as in gone missing, now this would have undoubtedly not make much of a difference for any playthrough that I manage to actually finish, but for some reason the little helpful popup icon tooltip was displaying several ? symbols where the date of reappearance would be. I was naturally curious and thought nothing of it as I watched as yet again my powerful space fleet of advanced warships of only three hundred ships managed to rout just a little over 2000 Turian ships. Not to brag but that's just a given, what with my civ's advanced tech and superior tactics…okay now I'm just gloating but that's not the point.

Nope.

The point at this point in time, is that right now I'm staring at a pile of smoking piece of junk that used to be my laptop. It had blown up, literally, in my face as I watched the Turians flee the field. In my short-sighted excitement I managed to knock over my cup of coffee, which had kept me going for the past 13 hours or so, right into my latptop's keyboards which no doubt leaked into the damned thing and short-circuited everything in it!

I hate Saturdays.

What really pissed me off though is that I'm gonna have to buy a new laptop and that's not cool, I can barely manage to keep my apartment let alone afford a new one. I'm going to have to sleep on it till I figure out what to do about it…not to mention the lost data from my games, I'm going to have to start over again, man I hate Saturdays.

 **On Monday…**

So yeah, I was at the bank this morning, to take out a loan when I suddenly had a bright idea! Not gonna loan from the bank, but I do know of a place where they can give you a decent loan…I just need to pay back every dime afterwards. My sister would probably break every bone in my body for just thinking about it buuut…

If all goes well I can get a new computer within the next few hours and be back playing after that. I'm pretty much addicted so…yeah. Now the guy I'm loaning from is actually, or was, a sort of friend of mine from high school, good guy but with his family history I just might die for even knowing him…here's to hoping I don't. Even then I made sure to write down about what I do and who I met and kept a meticulous account for where, when, how and who I do my businesses with and with this guy it was especially important. Atleast if I die, those who killed me wouldn't get away with it, I made sure to record a few of our conversations as well, a sure way to get me killed with this crowd but I needed the money and my sister would never indulge my little hobbie.

"So Ray, we good?" I asked my loaning buddy as he took moment to mull it over, in reality he was just putting on that little show for intimidation purposes which I totally get, though not really afraid of him, I am a little scared of the big hulk Hogan lookalike standing at the door behind me. Every now and then I glance at him just to make sure he's still there and not, say, an inch or two from my back.

"Oh, we're good…but there's just one question I have to ask." He said to me while staring right into my eyes, I swear he could see my soul as he did that. I managed to keep eye contact but I began to waver but fortunately he broke it off as he sighed. "Why the hell would borrow a measly 700 bucks when you can easily afford that amount of cash with what you're doing?"

I blinked twice remaining silent…I didn't have the heart to tell him I was fired really recently so I've been putting more time into video games than I would have normally did these past few months. So I just shrugged.

"Listen, I've known you since high school and even if we weren't that close I kinda still remember what you did for me back then." He said, I saw a slight hint of reminiscent smile on his face. I was honestly lost as to what he was referring to because I certainly didn't remember doing anything of note that…oh crap, this is something to do with whatever happened that time I woke up to suddenly find out I'm an uncle of two…I didn't really put much thought into it but I think maybe this is something I need to look into before a surprise I don't want decides to rear its ugly head. Not that being an uncle to two wonderful kids whose anime hobbies are something I'm proud they picked up from me…but back to the current point.

"I'll give you the money and we'll call it even." He told me as I sputtered out a reply but failed miserably but he laughed at that. "Just make sure you don't show up here again after this, because you're a good guy and I seriously don't want to have you owe me money, _verstehen_?"

I nodded.

 **Apartment…**

I returned to my place 700 dollars richer than when I left it and from there set my plans to go out and get me that laptop I saw. It was a nice one, affordable and reliable, plus it was brand new and one of the few deals I could actually get with my current unemployed status. The last job I had was not too demanding but the manager was not someone who I liked very much, so when I filed a formal complaint, I got back a reply telling me I was fired. WTF!

So now I'm jobless, my friends lent me money but that was a pitiful amount compared to this, of course my sister's husband managed to sneak a couple of grand over to me which I wisely kept in hard currency instead of depositing it in the bank. That money I burned through with rent, food necessities, electric and water bills, fuel for my ride, and a few other stuff too boring to mention. Not much left of it…

I looked at the time and it told me I should go to sleep which I did and with a small smile on my lips I drifted off into sleep.

 **=/\=**

" _Sir! We're getting killed out here!" I stare angrily at the radio as the man's voice from the other side came in. "Our position is too heavily compromised, we've got enemy flankers on our sides and the platoons carrying our heavy guns are gone. What are your orders?!"_

" _Fight to the last man," I screamed into the transmitter to him, "We can't let those fracking tin heads have this ship!"_

 _I cut off the line before turning to the man beside me, he looked grim as if he knew what I was going to say. Can't blame him, since it was inevitable and quite frankly still had me pondering the shit out of my brain how the fracked synthetics managed to get the better of my men! Not to mention this state of the art ship I was given command of…some state of the art it's turning out to be. Pfft._

" _Lieutenant, initiate Scuttle protocol." I affirmed with a grim nod, he only stared at me with blank saddened eyes and a slight nod. "I'm afraid this is the last time we see another fight. By the Holy One I just hope there are actually 72 virgins waiting for me at the other side…and hopefully not a 72 year old virgin."_

 _I say that part out loud enough that the men could hear, some laughed at that but others just stared forlornly at their monitors. It was a tough decision to make and it was perhaps the only one currently, mayhaps there was another way but I can't let this kind of tech only we possessed fall into an unknown's hands in this galaxy._

 _A few minutes later I keyed in the codes needed for the reactors to overheat and as the world around me was engulfed in white blinding light I can only think of home and the little baby girl I left behind without a father….I'm sorry my little angel know that I lo—_

 **=/\=**

I woke up feeling a lot less relaxed than I anticipated and maybe that was because it had something to do with that weird dream I had last night but I got over it and began doing my morning routine, you know, the usual shitting, bathing, breakfasting, and so many other minor stuff we take for granted each and every day we get out of bed. It occurred to me that not many appreciate the fact that they wake up every morning, and not dead. But I digress…

This morning was going to be different, because as I head out the door and got on my bike, I felt the air shift in the direction where I was going and knew instantly that I was going to be one lucky owner of a new affordable gaming laptop. It was a Lenovo one but specifically made for games in mind, other brands such as MSV or AlienWare were good but I kept up to date with the latest trends of game laptops and found out that a Lenovo brand was making headway as on top but then again there's always the HP and DELL brands which were close behind. Quality was something I wanted and be affordable too so when I saw the deal with this one I just had to have it…though there was something shady about the dealer when I met him.

Fun fact is that it came with a small VR headset too and that was going to be useful for those new fighter pilot games I wanted. This is going to shape up to be an exciting time for me. Though I will still play Stellaris, if not to continue it, then only because the new update was proving to be exciting with new features straight out of something LUCASARTS would have thought about.

It took the better part of the day to actually buy the laptop, the guy was a chatty one and he spoke to me about various subjects all ranging from microprocessing power, memory storage, RAM space, SSD drives and a few other things that went completely way over my head. I know a nerd when I see one, though this one dressed oddly, I'm as much a geek as the next guy but not that much! An hour later and I'm sitting on my desk back in my apartment setting up the final touches to my new computer.

I'm not an IT so the least I could do to make sure my stuff was protected by the best security software program available and also to setup many other features needed for smooth sailing a new game and make sure it worked well. I paid a hefty sum to get this all done (left over from the 2k), but it was worth it as I began reinstalling all of my games from one of three external drives I kept as backups in case of such emergencies as an exploding laptop. So when the final green line finished and I organized my games into a manner I can easily manage them in, I took to connecting my computer to the wi-fi in the building and got a firm and strong connection. One of the many benefits of having an apartment in this district was the free wi-fi, it was a blessing and it was fast too so no complaining from me.

I decided to open my mail and see what was going there, I found nothing of note, only a couple of new mails from some colleagues and they were rather dull. After that I decided to skip any social media stuff and head straight into the game itself. Said game being Stellaris, because I said so, and when I had finished adding the new update and opening it, I was actually surprised to see the same thing that greeted me the last I ran the game. There in all its glory was the Mass Relay but there was a difference this time around, the sequence where a small shuttle craft approaches the relay was instead replaced by a large structure off to the left side, just barely inside of view. It was a space station I think, but I didn't pay it too much attention, though I caught a glimpse of the little shuttle, just as I quickly pulled up the load menu and got exactly what I expected to see.

There was that button with the red trashcan icon that says the saved file was incompatible with the current update. Although I still had the same race of humans when I looked at the new game menu, which was kind of lucky or suspicious depending on how you looked at it but that's another story, which had a few new races added to it, mostly mechanical and the new type of humanoid species (or in the Tunarin's case – _Tunaroid_ ), but to tell the truth I was downtrodden and feeling a bit mad about the abrupt ending of my playthrough and therefore subsequent loss of my saved data but I decided to soldier on and make do with a restart. Hopefully the new features will offset my disappointment.

I did notice that the title, which still said _Expansion Edition_ , in the main menu sported a different writing style and had _Cherryh_ 2.0.1 written at the end of it in small fonts, not discounting the slightly smaller cursive font that said, _Apocalypse,_ in a creepy orange color. Also the style and color of the relay was different somewhat, not silver with a dark purplish-blue orb at the bulging end but was more beige and brown with a slightly lighter shade of blue where the same bulging gyroscope was located. It still retained that tuning fork look it's so famous for but I think the small color change was a nice touch yet insignificant, though I still can't tell how big it is and whether or not it's a main relay.

Honestly though, I just wanted to see the new Colossus and Titan class ships in action and what their effects were like, nothing is more satisfying than seeing things happening with your eyes where your hands caused the actions than to watch youtube videos about it. Anyways, I selected my own custom race, the Tunarin Imperial Covenant and decided that a small change in history, ethics and government was in order. Nothing too big, although the new humanoid ship type was interesting so I went with that too, otherwise it was mostly the same, the design of the banner was also something I changed into the two headed Aquila. Finished with the refinements I pressed the done button and instead of giving me the menu where I can customize the type of galaxy I want, the thing just blinked out on me before coming back on with the loading screen.

For the next few minutes I stared at the unreasonably long loading bar making its way through the first quarter. By this time I was pacing back and forth in front of my desk waiting for this insufferable thing to finish loading. It used to take no more than a minute two for it to load but this is just ridiculous! I look at my watch and saw that it's now been exactly 34 minutes and 21 seconds and counting since I pushed that done button. I don't know why but I got an odd feeling as I watched the same pictures loop over and over again, but I ignore it. Giving up I actually found myself in the small living room doing the pace once more in front of my TV. Plopping down on the sofa I waited for what seemed like ages when I grumbled and got back up heading back into my room and I saw that the loading had finally reached near the end of the bar. I sighed in frustration as I sat down and glared at the screen before the damned thing finally shifted to the now familiar sight of the greeting message.

Only I actually stopped my usual dismissal of the message as I saw what was written on it. It was sort of flattering and a little informative but nothing else. I quickly dismissed it and began the usual drill of having my scientist to survey the system but stopped when I noticed something new…something that I was sure the new update hadn't implemented as of yet, and certainly something that brought up memories of me wanting to ask the developers about this Expansion Edition that had popped up in my laptop. It seemed to me that it was trying to focus my attention on Mass Effect but wouldn't a mod be the same? Is this even a mod? And how come there weren't any announcements about this in the first place? All good questions...but...uh...what was I thinking about again?

I got this strange feeling that I missed on something, there's a blank page, sort of, that I can't seem to put my finger on...huh, crazy. I stare at my computer and the current issue I'm having right now is that there seemed to be a large rearrangement of the size disparity between the planets and everything else, including the space station floating near the now appropriately sized star. The new computer also seemed to be worth the graphic cards I had installed just in case, it was an awesome addition but the new up to scale sizes still had me in a loop well after the novelty ran out. I then noticed that I didn't need to build any mining or research stations due to the already existing structures so I turned my attention the planet. Thankfully all the usual stuff hadn't drastically changed aside from the fact that now I had a limit on how many fleets I can call up and maintain as well as the fact that everything is up to scale.

I seriously can't tell what is going on other than there may be more changes in the update than what was shown…I have to check the web later to make sure. For now however, I mouse over the downward pointed arrow on the upper left bar and saw that the sub-menu still showed the usual stuff from the previous update. Nodding to myself I got rid of that and moved on, there were the contact, situation log and the other menus on that bar with the double Aquila on the far top left corner which was the summary of my empire in all.

I checked over the planet and found it to be a nice and big one with 24 tiles. 8 of which were unoccupied, 4 were blocked by slums or industrial wastelands and the remainder occupied. I had in my coffers 1k energy, 2k mineral deposits, 500 influence, and 0 unity, the first two caught my attention when I looked at them, this was weird. Generally when starting off the first two resources were more in the 100 range as was the influence if not less, but I wasn't going to complain, more resources means more time for me to invest in meaningful projects and get a sizable economy going much earlier than my previous playthroughs. Though when I selected my science vessel, oh and did I mention that the new ship types were also much more aesthetically pleasing and cream-white in color but with red highlights across their surface hulls. It was sort of refreshing to see the ship becoming more like it should when orbiting a planet, as I watched its floating form silhouetted by the planet's darkside. Said world was a lush tropical moon orbiting a giant gas world which had a mineral mining station hovering over its large body, the station tiny in comparison to the gas giant. One must have wondered why I wasn't freaking out about this but I frankly couldn't care less, but I was feeling giddy on the inside, but maintained a calm exterior look if only to stop myself from cackling like a madman at the new look the game had.

It certainly had that _SOASE_ or _Homeworld_ feel to it now but it still retained the features that made it _Stellaris_ such as only being able to control ships in a group or fleet, though a single ship can be a fleet on its own but then they'd just get shredded. There's something that I can't put my finger on at the moment…like something is watching me, I can feel a kind of tiny bit of pressure that comes and goes…ack…what the hell am I saying, at this rate I'm going to go insane. I looked over at the top right and see that, yes, indeed I've started over again from the default point of 2200. 01.01, this is going to take a long time. Maybe I should just open the ~ menu and use those helpful commands?

Anyways, with the science ship selected, I mouse over the galaxy view button and found the camera zooming, rather quickly, out of the system before settling over the usual sight common to the Stellaris map of the galaxy. I scrolled out and as the view reached its highest point I let go of the mouse and just stared at the screen for a looooongg while. I finally spoke, mostly to myself, as I recovered, the words I uttered as I still stared somewhat disbelievingly at the screen were, "This is new..."

Understatement of my current playthrough or any other ones I went through. Also I've been meaning to ask the devs on Steam about this Mass Effect stuff…but I'll leave that for later though. Looking at my screen now has got me thinking as to how the heck my graphic card is keeping up with this much data…not to mention the last time I played on my other laptop.

 **=/\=**

 **(** _ **Beginning of sorta like in-game history flashback…**_ **)**

 **(** _ **Gameplay Time: 2 hrs 36 mins 24+secs**_ **)**

 **2230\. 3. 23 CC  
Holy Swift/4** **th** **Fleet**

 **Composition:  
15x [** _ **Annoyance Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
10x [** _ **TorpSlinger Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
15x [** _ **Interceptor Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
Total Contingent: 40 Corvettes**

 **[** _ **Youthful Shot – Annoyance Class Corvette**_ **]  
[Capt. Nimda Wennyporth]**

"What's the status on the hyperdrive, Ensign Moor?" The Captain, a burly, barrel chested late-middle aged man, with graying hairlines and a scowl that seemed permanently affixed to his face, asked of the young fellow seated on the terminal a meter to the right and front of his command chair.

"Hyperdrive is charged and ready to engage, on your orders sir." Ensign Moor, a lanky teen with a small soul patch under his chin replied smartly and quickly. Something the captain approved of in his subordinates.

"Good, order fleet to engage their hyperdrives at max speed." Capt. Nimda ordered but continued on, "What's the projected estimate of travel?"

"No more than 3 days, sir." Ensign Moor informed him and he nodded his thanks before turning to the Chief Security Officer, whose terminal placed him directly to the captain's left side. "I want weapons primed but put the safety on just in case."

"Understood, sir." The CSO confirmed but had the ' _look'_ as it were, he was naturally curious as to why the captain wanted weapons online. Seeing the affirmation, the CSO continued. "We expecting trouble on the other side?"

"Nothing much." Nimda spoke confidently, projecting his aura of authority over the CSO and in addition to the crew. Though he did impart caution, "Planetary sensors detected a large cluster of unknown objects that seemed to be moving of their own accord in the system we're heading to. So keep alert and tell the other ships to do the same."

"Aye, sir." The Communications Officer, a woman whose name he hadn't remembered or knew, spoke up. ' _Must be new._ ' Nimda thought as he returned to watching the fleet's status as the greenlit for hyperjump to commence. He liked this part of space travel, one where an object could literally bend some of physics rules to achieve faster than light travel. Mostly however, it was thanks to the discovery of the hyperlane networks that allowed for his people to traverse the distances between the local star cluster they inhabited by breaching hyperspace and access the lane between two stars. Usually this would take a lot of time but with the new upgrades to the hyperdrive, the charge up and recharge time were cut down by a significant margin.

"Hyperdrive is engaged, we're through the breach in 3…2…1."

The world around Nimda seemed to sudden shift to the front as his vision formed a tunnel as the forward bridge expanded like a rubber being pulled and just as suddenly it all snapped back into normal. Feeling a bit disoriented from the push into the hyperlane, he got up and turned to his XO on the right of his seat. "Commander, you have the con. I'll be in my cabin when you need me."

"Aye, sir." Nimda gave a curt nod as he passed by his XO heading to the lift. It opened and he stepped through it. As the door was closing he smiled to himself as he watched his XO get comfortable in the command chair, he had high hopes for the young man…if only his mother was here to see him, his thoughts darkened as he remembered a life so distantly in the past, a life of hard choices made and of promises not kept, of when he was a young fool seeking to claim fame and glory. Well look how that turned out, a wife who hated his guts, a child he never knew and a life wasted in pursuit of things he could never have. But now he was going to make amends, even if his kid didn't know it, he'll do everything he can to make sure his son becomes a greater man than he could ever be.

The door to the lifts closed.

 **Altair System  
3 Days later…**

Captain Nimda Wennyporth woke up to the sounds of alarms blaring and banging on his cabin door. He quickly got up and staggered to the door shaking his head, the noise and blinding red lights causing him to disorient. He pushed the pad on the door and it slid open, in front of him was a black clad security officer, he looked at the man and saw the bruise on his face.

"What the hell is going, Trooper?" Nimda grounded out the words, still refocusing on his surroundings, the noise and lights weren't helping him.

"Sir, we're under attack." The trooper said, his voice wavering but more in anger than fear. His weapon tightly gripped and horizontal across his chest and abdomen, he continued, "You're needed on the bridge."

The captain nodded and began a steady pace toward the lifts, gradually coming into focus once more when he broke into a run. Reaching and entering the lift he waited impatiently as it moved, the doors barely opened when he burst through and ran over to his command chair. His XO returning to his seat when he saw him, when he was seated he barked out, "Report!"

"Unknown entities broke through our formation, sir." The CSO, Martin his name was, informed the captain. "Our weapons were online so we were able to hold them off long enough for our ships to get their bearings, but we lost five corvettes."

Nimda closed his eyes in silent prayer to the Holy One before his eyes snapped open, steeling himself and taking in the visual information as fast as possible. He looked them over again before asking, "Numbers?"

"Over twenty-three sir but these things are tough to crack." The Sensor Officer reported grimly. "Our energy based weaponry is having minimal effect. Kinetics work just fine though."

"What are we up against?"

The Sensor Officer looked at his terminal, "Unknown sir, the sensors aren't making any sense. I'm getting chemical composition readings on the unknowns…dimensions put them at roughly the size of our corverttes or smaller but no discernible weakness other than their vulnerability to kinetics…which I might add we don't have a lot of."

The captain, growled in frustration, as he thought back to the designs of the corvettes, too reliant of laser DEWs with only single coil guns on the Interceptors and Annoyance class of corvettes. However, he set that aside as he ordered full visual of the enemy, the things were made of jagged edges and blocky tower like surfaces that were faintly glowing and reflective and came in different colors. From somewhere within them…they were like floating crystals in space and from what he remembered from the TOP SECRET report he was handed when the fleet left for this system, the top egg heads were working on figuring out what these things were.

"Sir," The Comm Officer, that woman whose name he really should know before he makes a fool of himself, pulled him out of his thoughts. "Orders from the Admiral, coordinates have been sent to us."

"Alright, hand them over to Ensign Moor." She nodded and typed a few commands on her terminal. He turned his gaze over to the Ensign to address him, "Moor, punch in those coordinates and get us out of here."

"Aye, sir, Punching in coordinates…prepare for micro-jump in 3…2…1." The ship lurched and similar to the effects of hyperspace travel, the ship's view was stretched forwards before snapping back into normalcy. The captain shook his head, thinking ' _never gonna get used to that._ '

"Status report!" Nimda called out to the crew of his bridge most of them looking confused and disoriented.

"Sensors are recalibrating."

"Weapons are still online."

"Communications are offline."

"Secondary hyperdrives are in cooldown. Time to next micro-jump is 30 minutes. Thrusters are online, reorienting."

"Hull integrity at 87%, hull breaches detected in sector 4 and 7. Blast doors have closed off the affected sectors."

"Medical reports several crew injured, four dead and six in critical condition."

The report went on before it finally stopped and the Comm Officer yelled out in triumph as she said, "Communications are back online!"

Captain Nimda sighed with relief. He needed to contact the Admiral and the rest of the fleet to get their bearings, "Patch me through to the flagship."

"Aye, sir, patching you through now, expect minor static interference." He thanked her before the call was established and the voice of the Admiral came over his personal comm.

"…an…is..s…miral…T..r…o…n…wha….ur…stus…ver…" Nimda couldn't make out what was being said so he glanced at his Comm Officer who was working furiously on her terminal to fix the heavy interference. After a few moments she looked back and nodded to him. Again the call came in but this time it was a bit more clearer.

"Can…ou…hear…e…this…Adm…a…Tyrieoon. What is your status, over?" Nimda immediately replied.

"Admiral, if you're hearing me, this Captain Wennyporth. We're shaken but okay, our ship is still in this fight."

"Good…o…hear." The Admiral replied, his voice was still being randomly cut out by static but Nimda can understand what was said now. "..thers have…ported in. We're all here, ou…pus..back toward th…nemy will…comm…nce in 20 minutes. Confirm?"

"Confirmed, this is Captain Nimda Wennyporth of the _Indomitable Soul_ ready and waiting. Out." The Captain cut his line before turning to his crew. "Looks like we'll be going back in to teach whatever those are a lesson."

The crew cheered but remained solemn. They had lost a lot of good friends when those ships were lost in the initial attack, now they were going back in and potentially putting more lives at risk but they were warriors blessed by the guiding hand of the Holy One, even if sometimes that hand led them to their deaths. In the end though, it was all done for the greater good of all Tunarin people, the Covenant pact made with the holy entity at the dawn of their civilization is binding and ever present, though in recent times it has become less and less visible. Wherein the past the people as a whole would be gifted with resources and miracles, now the Holy One's presence seemed to have diminished though there were still signs of His power here and there. Such as when a fleet is sent out, armies marched to war, and generally things that needed direction. Nimda noticed these things but never commented on them, others have said that the imperator was the Holy One himself but Nimda dismissed that idea as ludicrous.

It was widely known that the Holy One worked His miracles by using exceptionally _gifted_ individuals who became, in time, known as the Imperators. Not just anyone could just become an Imperator, one must have strength in the _gift_ in order to be considered and then seated upon the Imperial Throne which is said to be crafted from a fallen star and had magical like properties that allowed for a better connection with the Holy One when the Imperator sat upon it.

For now the captain focused on the task at hand as the his ship went into formation with the fleet and the order was sent for the ships to charge the crystal like entities. He always sent a sideways glance to his XO and smiled inwardly with pride as he saw him with that determined expression he knew of another person would often get. He returned his attention to the matter at hand as the fleet drew closer, the battle ahead will no doubt prove whether or not the Tunarin people are ready to face the galaxy's dangers but with the Holy One guiding them, there can be no doubt that they will prevail.

' _Hopefully…_ ' he thought grimly as the opening volley from their _Torpslingers_ sent dozens of torpedoes toward the crystal menaces.

 **(** _ **End of sorta like in-game history flashback…**_ **)**

 **=/\=**

 **2183 CE  
[** _ **Unknown Location**_ **]**

A large star within the centre of the system that had few to no celestial bodies in its orbit floated there in a serene yet chaotic show of existence, its surface a hotbed of solar flares and heat waves battering the singular artificial structure suspended in geosynchronistic orbit around said star. It was a peculiar design, vertical and narrow with slight curved slants above and below, several jutting structures dotted is surface in its midriff. Lights from external viewing windows and ports showed signs of life.

It was a space station owned and operated by none other than the foremost of humanity's best, the home of one Illusive Man, currently seated on his throne with monitors providing additional lighting in his very dark office. Spaciously carvernous and quite a bit lonesome if the Illusive Man was honest with himself but it's just how he liked it. The clicking sound of heels he knew so well approached him from behind as he puffed out smoke from the cigar he had in his right hand, tucked comfortably in between his index and middle finger.

"I trust you have something important." He puffed out another plume of wispy smoke, annoyed at the interruption but welcoming it anyways, it can be rather dull just watching the holographic monitors every day, but the view of the white star did provide some sense of calm and serenity to his workplace.

"Of course," A woman, whose voice was punctuated with a rather hypnotic alluring accent, stood in a casual pose behind the Illusive Man's chair. Said man just stared at the monitors before turning around, his cold blue mechanically glowing eyes staring at the young woman. She wore her signature skintight catsuit, white with black and had the vertical orange Cerberus hexagon above her right breast. The Illusive Man was no pervert as he took in her appearance but he's not one to miss out on appreciating the perfection that was Miranda Lawson, a byproduct of his _friend's_ madness to leave a legacy. He gestured for her to continue as he brought his cigar to his lips taking in a breath before letting it out in a cloud of smoke swirling around his head.

"Our agents detected Geth activity outside the Perseus Veil, in Turian space." She said, she was the picture of professionalism as she began her report. "Said agents managed to secure a rather promising specimen from the wreckage of spaceship we believe matched up with what rumors we keep hearing about from the edge of Turian held space, toward the outer rim."

"What specimen did they bring?" She cleared her throat as if apprehensive to divulge the information but a glare made her part with the information.

"Our agents were initially confused but were professional about it," Miranda was still not sure whether to believe the scientists but she had seen the specimen for herself and what she found certainly startled her, and she wasn't one to easily be surprised. Yet there are some things even she couldn't quite fully come to terms with, such as not being able to firmly control the way things would turn out, but alas this concerned the Illusive Man and he was someone not to be underestimated. "The specimen, from what our initial examinations could tell us, was human. The agents did a scan on him and saw he had an anomalous organ tissue in his skull that was attached to his brain which turns out to be a biomechanical implant of some kind.

"Our scientists are still trying to figure out what it is but they know that it had more processing power, enough that it is as close to a rudimentary AI system if used on its own." She explained, the Illusive Man listening intently but she couldn't tell for sure as he sent another wisp of whitey smoke streaming out of his mouth. "We're trying to analyze the material but so far we've had little success. Then there is the armor he had on him, it was heavily damaged and unsalvageable but the metal, and what circuitry we found in it, used to construct it proves that it is far advanced than anything we have. Also he had a single weapon on him, for all intents and purposes after we determined its properties it is a true handheld directed-energy-weapon."

That last bit of info had the Illusive Man's eyes widen a short margin. His expression made the young woman smile, "What can we expect from reverse engineering the tech from this specimen?"

"Aside from the metal from the armor, which proved to be more durable than current metal used in armor today," Miranda pondered, "the weapon will prove to be more difficult but given time we'll be able to field less powerful but nonetheless effective firearm prototypes. Though the cost will be immense to even produce a small number of them, what concerns me is the specimen. He's clearly human but the level of evolutionary development is rather worrisome."

"How?"

"Large traces of nuclear radiation were found in his organs and what remained of his blood arteries and veins." She explained, watching the frown appear on the Illusive Man's face, she went on. "That had us put the corpse in quarantine, we were able to determine that the radiation is harmless but we're not taking any chances. We did check the armor and other equipment he had on him but none showed signs of radiation. Further testing showed he had extensive enhancements made to his skeleton which we found to be denser and more larger, thus making him taller than an average human, easily over seven feet.

"His remaining internal organs were quite extensively damaged, one of his arms was severed below the elbow and shrapnel were embedded along his left side. His face was a mess, burned and melted by something. He died a horrendous and excruciating painful death. His remains were found floating in the void by our agents as they searched the wreckage, there was sign of a ship but I believe it has either been hauled off by someone but I cannot be too sure."

"Keep the specimen on ice for now, learn what you can about the enhancements he has." The Illusive Man turned around to look back at the monitors and as the clicking sound of Miranda's shoes echoed away he spoke her name. "Miranda…"

She paused, he'd never used her first name without a good reason, and its usually when he wanted something done and overseen by her personally. She waited patiently. He didn't disappoint.

"We may have to utilize a certain asset when the time presents itself." He said casually but she frowned at what he was suggesting. "I know you'll not disappoint me."

"Of course, Illusive Man." She replied and headed out of the large dark office. The Illusive Man, Jack Harper, curled his lips into an evil smile as he beheld the benefits from the unknown human's _gifts_ , with this he could further his other plans…but for now he felt a headache as a new report came in from his agents about another Cerberus facility going dark. ' _Damn Spectre_.' He scowled as a video footage of a Mako APC tank rolling through said facility, gun blazing and wreaking havoc, causing him untold property damage.

 **=/\=**

 **2183 CE  
[Citadel – Human Embassy Office]**

"What's this I hear about an attack on the Turians?" Donnel Udina, the annoying piece of shit that was humanity's ambassador to the Citadel asked the stern faced military officer sitting across from him. They were lounging around the office having just arrived from the small cafeteria on the same floor their embassy was on.

"Nothing much to say, just rumors." Captain David Anderson, a military man through and through and the mentor and father figure of a certain, first human, Spectre. "The Councilors hinted they may need our help soon, I've already informed Admiral Hackett."

"Help?" Udina raised a brow in response and then proceeded to angrily complain. "WE need the help, not the Council. Our colony was hit and they need our help for TURIANS?!"

"We're part of something greater." Anderson retorted, sure they were Turians, whom humans had a bad first encounter with, but that wasn't an excuse to ignore their plea for help…wait scratch that, not a plea but a demand. He sighed, "Listen, Udina, I don't want to argue about it, so just drop the subject."

Just then the doors open and in stepped a heavily armed and armored individual, behind her two people, an Asari and another human followed in. They stopped and looked at each other, Anderson regarding the woman in front of him with pride. Udina just scoffed before he grounded out, "If anyone needs me I'll be in the restroom."

"What a jerk." The other woman, Ashley Williams, Anderson remembered her well, from their first meeting on the Normandy when they had left Eden Prime. ' _That was a mess_ ,' the veteran human soldier thought with a grimace.

"Yeah, he is." The first woman agreed with a snort. "Captain, sir."

Anderson motioned for the three of them to sit and they took their seats. Once settled he asked, "So what brings you out this way, Commander?"

"Supplies and a bit of shore leave." Jane automatically supplied but the scowl on her face told him something was off.

"Something's clearly on your mind." Anderson pointed out trying to coax it out of her. Nothing ever good happens when she bottles up her emotions that mess on Torfan is self explanatory.

"If I may speak freely sir," Anderson sighed. He'd gone through with this speech before but he knew she wasn't going to listen to him, she was as stubborn as her mother, whom Anderson was a good friend for many years.

"You may, Commander."

"I recently received a transmission from Admiral Hackett to do a recon of the area near the Perseus Veil." She began but the Captain suddenly became more interested in what she had to say. "What we found was a wreck, it was too badly damaged and frankly disturbing to say the least. I reported back and was told the Salarians would be moving in to take what's left of whatever that was, then I get another transmission saying I should come to you. What I want to say is that I can't well take my fucking time while Saren is out loose in the galaxy somewhere doing god knows what."

"Calm down, Shepard." Anderson admonished her but felt a pang of protective worry as she slumped back in her seat.

"I am close to finding him, I have a lead after Feros but I can't do my job of finding him if I keep getting sidetracked by Alliance Command." She said grinding her teeth. Her two companions shifted uneasily in their seats, for Ashley she was uncomfortable with being this close to a superior officer and her CO's rather relaxed and familiarity with said superior. For the asari, who Anderson indentified as Liara T'soni, daughter of that Matriarch the Commander was sure was working with Saren, she was uncomfortable with the not so subtle glares Ashley was throwing her way.

"I know but there's little I can do about that." David Anderson sighed, "I—"

He didn't finish as the pinging noise and then the chime that followed drew their attention to the monitors on the wall of the small embassy, which had a nice view of the Presidium lake by the way. On the monitor an Asari reporter came on as behind her chaos broke out, explosions and gunfire was heard and the camera rocked uncontrollably before the reporter managed to speak.

"I'm *static* here on the Turian colony of *static* you can see behind me the explosions *static*" The monitor blanked out for a few painstaking moments before coming back on but the view that greeted the Commander, the former Captain of the Alliance's most advanced warship, the asari and the human woman was a sight that would be engrained in their memories from that day on.

"Get off me!" The Asari reporter screamed as two burly men, body profile identified them as Tunaroid, decked out in black military fatigues and plated armor held her down. A third one stood off to the side with a pistol aimed at her. She screamed and let loose a biotic blast that threw off her attackers. She got up and ran toward the camera, picking it up she activated its follow mode and bolted just as gunfire and bullets whizzed past her. She yelped in pain as a shot grazed her left arm. She stumbled and fell the camera drone following her all the way.

"No! Get away from me!" The reporter screamed her warning as her biotics flared up again, this time the three unknown attackers didn't approach her. They just kept their distance, one of them pointed at the camera and one pointed its firearm at it. The monitor cut out again and the small group watching the monitors all looked at each other before the chatter broke out.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley asked as she tried to process what she just saw.

"Apparently somebody is raiding Turian colonies this time around." Udina smirked but Anderson and the others ignored him.

There was a ping and they all turned to see that the Council was calling the human embassy. Udina tried not to look at it but it was compelling and so he answered and the three forms of the Turian, Salarian and Asari Councilors appeared as holographic images.

"Councilors, to what to do I owe this call?" Udina's false smile of appreciation was enough to get a groan out of Jane as she watched the Turian councilor frown, one can't tell much from a Turian's face.

"We don't have enough time for your antics, Ambassador Udina." The Turian growled. "We called because we have a bigger more material problem than Saren and we need your help with it."

"Know that this was a decision made with extreme difficulty." The Salarian Councilor spoke up, Anderson was not sure what to make of him, shifty as he was. "But the Turians cannot face this danger alone."

"What danger?" Ashley blurted out before she could stop herself causing everyone to look at her. She felt uncomfortable with everyone staring at her, so she deflected. "What? Someone had to ask."

"As improper as that was," Shepard shook her head, "she's right. We need to know what we'll be facing if we're going to send help."

The Councilors all looked at each other, the Asari was forthcoming if Shepard read her body language right, she clearly wanted to tell the humans what they needed to know. The Salarian was hesitant but open to it while the Turian was clearly uncooperative but begrudgingly nodded.

"You've seen the news report that ended in a rather abrupt manner." The Turian was the one to address them as Anderson nodded, they all did. "Well suffice it to say that for the past few days we've been hard pressed to deal with an incursion into our territory from the outer spiral. The details will be explained further when Palaven High Command is in talks with your Alliance about a possible merger fleet to beat back these aliens' push."

"Why can't you tell us now?" Udina in that annoying tone of voice of his butted in. The Councilo was not amused by that.

"There are some things that shouldn't be discussed on such an open line of communications." The asari councilor cautioned, though there was that hint of warning in her voice even behind that fake smile she gave.

"I'll contact Admiral Hackett about this." Anderson promised.

"We thank you." The councilors' images dissipated and left the group to ponder on their words and the fact that one of the Turians colonies was being attacked. Who the attacker were was still a mystery and one that Anderson ordered Shepard to find out if she can.

"Don't worry, Captain." She saluted, "I'll find any pertinent information and bring it back here or send to the Admiral but I have my mission and I won't abandon it." Pausing a moment she strained out, "Saren needs to be taken down, there's just too much of a possibility of him bringing about the end if left alone for too long."

"Very well," Anderson conceded even as he ignored the pointed glare the Ambassador was giving him.

After the Commander and her team left the office, Anderson couldn't help but feel that things were going to take a turn for the worst somewhere along the line. The Turians getting attacked was something on his mind, but it wasn't the Geth that did the attack which led him to believe that whatever danger the Councilors wanted help against was something that shouldn't be ignored and neither was the threat of these so called Reapers that Saren was trying to bring back to the galaxy. He was the only one who believed Shepard when she began rambling on about what she'd discovered after getting the cipher.

 **=/\=**

 **(** _ **Gameplay Time: 1wk 8days 12hrs 48mins 57+secs**_ **)**

 **2999\. 12. 31. CC**

 **7** **th** **Fleet/Holy Breach**

 **Fleet Composition:  
1x [** _ **Imperator Class**_ **\- Titan]  
2x [** _ **Carrier Class**_ **\- Battleships]  
2x [** _ **Artillery Class**_ **\- Battleships]  
2x [** _ **Support Class**_ **\- Battleships]  
13x [** _ **Torpedo**_ _ **Class**_ **\- Cruisers]  
10x [** _ **Hunter Class**_ **\- Cruisers]  
15x [** _ **Javelin Class**_ **\- Cruisers]  
35x [** _ **Corsair Class**_ **\- Destroyers]  
30x [** _ **Streamer Class**_ **\- Destroyers]  
25x [** _ **Privateer Class**_ **\- Destroyers]  
55x [** _ **Annoyance Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
60x [** _ **Interloper Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
50x [** _ **TorpSlinger**_ **\- Corvettes]  
Total Contingent: 1 Titan, 6 Battleships, 38 Cruisers, 90 Destroyers, 165 Corvettes = 300 Ships.**

 **[** _ **Flagship Breach – Imperator Class Titan**_ **]  
[Fleet Admiral Harald Vandersen]**

 **[Admiral's Cabin – Command Deck 1(3)]**

No one wanted to bother the Admiral, even as they celebrated their victory over the avian xenos, outnumbered over a large margin they still managed to walk away with a victory but it was dulled by the Admiral's gloomy disposition as he walked out the bridge that day. Someone had whispered into his ears and just like that his smile had faded away fast and a depressing aura surrounded him, the crew watched him walking away with the FO hanging his head looking at his retreating form.

So now the Admiral was locked away in his cabin, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, his eyes were puffy and red, his uniform a crumpled mess on the floor standing in front of the cracked mirror he had in on hand a bottle and in the other hand was a firearm, pointed at his head.

He contemplated ending his miserable life right there and then but he just couldn't do it…after all it was the alcohol influencing his actions thus far. But the news that had reached his ears, and no doubt that of his younger brother, concerning the fate of their youngest brother had broken something inside of him. He knew what they were getting into when they joined up but risks weren't there as the sense of patriotism, faith, and adventure was something the three of them had always wanted. Their parents had encouraged them into it, even though the dangers of such a life could have easily deprived them of their children. It was something that every parents dreaded but must comply with as it was tradition, it was something that was ingrained upon them by their ancestors whose lives depended upon their martial prowess.

It would have eventually led to death, this path of theirs, and they accepted that but at times it felt like a useless venture but his faith must not waver in the face of this news. His brother has passed on and he will mourn for him always, but as a commanding officer he must compose and conduct himself in a manner befitting his station. Dropping the weapon on the bed he downed and emptied the bottle then promptly fell back onto the bed, eyes staring at the ceiling for hours until sleep finally took him.

 **5 hours later…**

He woke up feeling refreshed, stretching and standing up from the bed he set about getting ready. Showered, had his meal and then stood in front of the holo picture frame of his family. A photo of him and his parents and two younger brothers, the youngest of whom he placed a finger over and then to his hearts, a single tear streamed down the side of his face as he bit back a sniffle. He'll always remember the little devil, his pranks and even his bad table manners. For now he steeled himself and walked out of his comfort zone, his cabin and headed to the lift. He had xenos to fight and also to avenge his brother, for somewhere out there someone was responsible for his death and he will not rest until his vengeance is satisfied. He just wished he had the support of the Colossus in his mission to conquer these Turians, though he is holding out hope that High Command would deploy said colossus in short order.

' _Bureaucrats are the worst,_ ' Harald shuddered at that thought. In his opinion, pencil pushers were a waste of time, money and space but luckily for the government he wasn't the revolutionary type because if he was then the bureaucrats would be the first to go.

As he walked the length of the corridor he found himself in, heading toward the Command bridge, he stopped by a shrine to the Holy One situated in the middle of the corridor, set under a small alcove. It was in the shape of the majestic two headed Aquila sat upon a golden halo, there was incense burning at the small shrine indicating someone had already said their prayers here, quite a few someones from the number of incense sticks that he could count and observe. Taking one that was not yet lit, he flicked the tip and it began to burn and a wisp of smoke floated from it. Placing it in the small vase beneath the shrine he bowed his head in prayer to the Holy One and then marched on his way to the bridge.

 **[Command Bridge – Deck 2(3)]**

"Admiral on deck!" The crew stiffened in salute as Harald walked in, he returned the gesture before taking his seat. The men and women on the bridge returned to the posts with practiced ease and began their routine status report indicating systems function, fleet status, weapons and so forth. Harald took all of this in stride and perused a detailed report given to him by his FO.

"Sir we're getting transmissions from the 6th Fleet." The Comm Officer Uriel said from his terminal.

"How are they doing?" Admiral Vandersen inquired, his thoughts on the 6th Fleet were that it was an obsolete and outdated group of floating junk, but one that still had enough firepower to waste the xenos if need be.

"They've secured a beachhead on the Turian world," was the reply, Harald rubbed his chin in thought, when suddenly the Comm Officer continued. "Sir, the 6th is requesting relieve forces for much needed repairs. Admiral Kane is on the line, shall I send it to your personal comm.?"

"Do that." Harald nodded as the officer typed a few commands before accessing their NeLI. Harald mentally clicked into his bioimplant and accessed the NeLI system whereupon he noticed the red flag in the message tab. He opened it via mental pressure and was greeted with the smug looking face of Admiral Thorn Kane. With a thin smile Harald greeted is counterpart, "Admiral, what do you need?"

"Oh, nothing much, just your help if you're not too busy." Kane replied, that smug smirk never leaving his face. Harald mentally sighed and hoped he didn't have to put up with him in person, they were rivals after all but they had to tolerate each other for the sake of winning the war, a feat unto itself. "I'm a sitting quacker here if you don't come and relieve me and my boys."

"What's the status of your fleet?" Harald ignored that last statement, wishing this conversation was over with.

"To business eh?" Kane had a lopsided grin before adding, "Well, I can understand that. We're doing fine, except we lost a lot of corvettes in the initial engagement. Intel was off by a large margin. There was over six hundred xeno ships, destroyers mostly and we've managed to capture a shipyard so our egg heads will be happy to study how they build their ships."

"That's a lot of information for the egg heads." Harald was genuinely surprised by this new development, it would mean the Covenant was this much closer to cracking how the xenos were utilizing Zro to such effectiveness. Not that it was any of his concern but it would definitely come in handy for the navy's corvettes and destroyers to enjoy maneuverability of the caliber the xenos had for their ships. "Standby for relief forces. We'll be there within two days."

"Glad for that then," Kane's grin faded to be replaced with an actual smile, Harald was confused. "See you when you get here and if you meet up with the 34th Convoy, tell them to contact me. I've tried raising their CO but he's not answering his damned comm."

"Will do, Vandersen out." Harald cut off the line as he returned to normality and his bridge. He looked at the helmsman, "Helm easy now and gently take us away from planet orbit." Turning next to the Comm Officer, "Comm inform the fleet we're moving out, bring them into formation and prepare for Jump toward these coordinates."

"Aye, Admiral." The ship's inertial dampeners were great, allowing him to not feel the ship's struggles as it moved and turned away from the planet they had found after they'd gone through the gateway. It was a large world, large enough that it was turned into a new fortress world, one where the military would be resupplied and new recruits would be churned out for the navy and army. He thought back to his younger brothers and though his ached at having lost the youngest, he vowed once more that he will have his revenge.

"All ships reporting in." The Comm Officer informed him. He nodded and with a knowing look to his FO he felt the unnatural weight of the ship as it began initiating jump procedure. It wasn't anything like hyperspace travel where a bluish-white swirling tunnel was the norm, jumping was more like an instantaneous thing where a flash of light, innards that felt like they've been torn apart mashed around and then put back together, before finally the flash went away and when your sight was cleared you were at your destination. It was a feeling Harald hated and loved at the same time, utterly astonishing and weird.

"Prepare for jump in 3…2…1." The helmsman spoke and with a small gesture on his terminal there was that familiar feeling of being turned into slush and then put back together again and they were at their target destination. Though they were at the edge of the system, the fleet would make good time to reach the Turian colony and relieve the 6th Fleet. Harald was not surprised when his Communications Officer reported receiving transmission from a certain general.

"Put him on the main monitor." He said to which the Comm Officer complied and the holographic image of the general's head floated on the main tactical monitor. "General Thigh, a displeasure to make your acquaintance once again."

"Same here, Admiral Vandersen." The general replied with no small amount of disdain. "My boys will handle the ground operation and will expct no interference from you. Do we have an accord?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself. As long as you don't go overboard with the occupation, I wouldn't want to have to report your conduct to High Command like last time." Harald smiled at the general who glared at him, hate and loathing evident in the man's eyes.

"Is that a threat, Admiral?" Thigh growled, squinting his eyes at Harald who was not fazed.

"No, General. It is a promise, I do not take kindly to your antics." Harald answered honestly, his fierce glare daring the general to retort. The other man did not.

"Stay out of my way, Admiral." The transmission cut out and Harald scoffed, muttering about the general having bad manners.

"Sir," FO Merallus interrupted the Admiral's thoughts. "We're not going to have trouble with the general again, will we?"

"I don't know, that will be up to him." Harald sighed, he really wished it was some other general or mere colonel or brigadier but somehow he always ended up working with people he hated or disliked or simply indifferent towards and never someone he actually liked. "Forget about him though. We have a job to do."

 **=/\=**

 **[Captain Johann Jacobs]  
Unknown Turian colony  
East Quadrant, Unknown Turian city…**

The fringe heads were a tough lot, couldn't have found a better enemy to fight, atleast that was the opinion of one Johann Jacobs. A veteran pirate hunter and anti-terrorist specialist, he was assigned with the 45th Mechanized Infantry under Colonel Edvard Thigh, the cousin of their illustrious General. He wasn't one to gossip but he knew that the only reason the Colonel got his position was because of said familial connection though he quickly proved to be an adept tactician and commander, offsetting how he had gotten the position in the first place. Johann couldn't care less though, he was a soldier, even if he did spend the last ten years of his life as a glorified space cop in the frontier colonies.

Right now though he was sitting on a dropship, heading into one of the landing zones that was cleared by the 6th Fleet. He was in the opinion that the navy should have just kept bombarding the xenos until nothing was left and thus making his job that much easier but alas the army and the navy had an agreement that he wasn't privy to. Leave the ground for the army to invade and don't destroy the targets outright from orbit, was the agreed terms of that pact between the rival branches of the Covenant military. He just hoped that the navy would stick around for when the xeno colony was finally subdued, in the even that it didn't the navy would then have the field and completely bombard the planet to kingdom come.

' _Now_ _that_ _would_ _be_ _a_ _sight_ _to_ _behold,'_ Johann thought in grim satisfaction. A mental picture of a devastated alien world, burning and crumbling under the sheer firepower of the mighty steel ships of the Tunarin Navy, he was thrown out of his day dreaming when the dropship violently rocked and began spiraling out of control. The PA system came on as the voice the pilot called out in alarm.

" _We're hit! Brace for impact!_ "

Johann grabbed onto the harness holding in place and closed his eyes shut grinding his teeth as several tons of Force-G pressure threatened to suffocate him when he jerked forward then back and hit his head. He blacked out, the screams and high pitched noises fading away along with his vision.

…

When he woke up, it was to see that several of his men were dead, a few had been impaled by the jagged edges of the debris that was the dropship. A few were still alive but wounded, he himself was in no shape to move yet, a long shard of deformed metal had lodged itself in his left shoulder.

' _Damn._ ' He groaned in pain as he chanced a move, he stopped when the pain shot through him. He looked at the men who had survived and they looked back at him, concern in their eyes but he ignored that in favor of giving out orders, "Stop gawking at me and get out there!"

"Sir—" A corporal began but was promptly shot down as he whittled under the Captain's glare.

"Do not tempt me, just get whatever you can and move out. Now! I want a secure perimeter around the wreck!" Johann barked out the orders, biting back the pain in his shoulder with every word.

"Sir, yes, sir!" The men quickly moved to obey and did so expertly, grabbing whatever gear they could get their hands on and breaking through the damaged exit. As soon as they moved out into the open gunfire streaked in and killed two of Johann's men. The Captain cursed when he saw the life signs wink out from his helmet's HUD.

"Fuuucckk!" Johann screamed as he dislodged himself from the shard falling to his knees but careful not to drop on his left side. He got back up painfully groaning as he moved to the exit, taking cover he barked out commands to is remaining men. "Jen get your ass back here!"

A private hastily crawled back to the wreck and took cover just as bullets thunked into the ground where he'd been prone on. "We're surrounded sir!"

"Way to state the obvious, genius." Johann smirked at the private who grinned nervously back at him. "You got the comm?"

"Yes sir." Private Jen nodded.

"Good. I want you to get on it and call in a strafing run from our flyboys." Johann told him and the private opened the comm lines. "Also tell them we're gonna need a lot of body bags."

"Yes sir."

Johann then took a peak out of the damaged doorway and could make out a lot of fringe heads with what looked like kinetic assault rifles and a few heavy machine gun emplacements just a few hundred meters to their front. From what details he could get, he and his men were way off from their course. He rolled his eyes and shook his head quietly cursing the xenos for having shot down his dropship. He lost an entire platoon of 50 men, well only about 19…scratch that, 14 made it through. All of them wounded in some way but still able to shoot.

' _Thank the Holy One for small mercies._ ' He thought with a grimace as he saw another of his boys get shot and out of the count. "Get your asses to better cover!" he shouted to his men, fearing they'd overexposed themselves to enemy fire.

The men crawled on their stomachs, sliding backwards toward the small ditch made by the crashed dropship. "Hyde get your head down!"

Lance Corporal Hyde, one of Johann's best men complied just as a bullet barreled straight through where his head was a mere second ago. Johann sighed with angry relief at that. Sometimes he wanted to strangle his men for being idiots.

"Sir!" He turned his attention back to the private.

"What is it?"

"The flyboys are busy!" Johann could only scream in his head as he saw his situation go from worse to fucking screwed.

"Well kid its been nice knowing ya." The Captain smiled at the private who returned the smile with a lopsided grin.

Johann grabbed a pistol from the ground and checked its charge, it displayed that it had a full battery before expiring. He took a deep breath and then popped out of cover taking potshots at the enemy line. He thought he saw one of the fringe heads fall over but as he took cover he wasn't sure.

The private meanwhile was down on the ground, sprawled against dirt with blood oozing out the hole in his head. ' _Fucking sniper!_ ' Johann dreaded that thought, his men were sitting quackers in this wreck. But atleast there would be more cover in the dropship.

"Hyde, Morris, Lander, and the rest of you fuck heads get your asses back in here!" Johann shouted at the top of his lungs, "careful not to make yourself stand out, there's a sniper out there!"

"Copy that!" Hyde replied as he and the rest of the platoon crawled as quickly as possible back into the dropship.

"Well that was exciting!" Lander, a private, laughed. The others all laughed along with him only to be shocked into silence as Lander's head exploded into a bloody mist.

"Fuck!" Someone yelped as they scrambled into cover. Johann growled in frustration and anger, cursing the alien sniper and whoever that was who shot his dropship down.

Just then the radio crackled and through the static Johann could make out a voice. It was saying something but was too mired in static interference to be of any sense. He desperately wished that some sort of miracle would come and save him and his men…what's left of them anyway.

"… _peat…is…ngo…ltro. We're…icking…up…ur…gnal…payload….nger close!_ " The broken voice said but there was too much interference for any of the men, Johann included, to make out what it was trying to say. That said, they had to keep their heads down as the sniper was still out there, occasionally taking potshots so as to draw the men out. So far no luck there for the sniper, there was no way in hell the men were going to make a meal out of themselves, not after poor Lander bit the dust.

He was still on the ground, just lying there, head all mashed up above the jawline. Brain matter and gooey blood meshed together with the dirt and blood of the dead or wounded. Yet the men knew their position was a precarious place to hunker down, with no back up they were dead.

"Well gentlemen, its been an honor fighting alongside you." Captain Johann Jacobs looked into the eyes of each of his surviving soldiers. Beaming with pride at them not losing their heads, _sorry Lander_ , during the initial shootout, "I don't have much to say except that today I want you to know that I couldn't have been more prouder of you than I ever could."

"Atleast be more happy when you say it!" Hyde quipped as he chuckled when Johann glared at him.

"Damn it, Hyde!" Johann's eyes twitched in annoyance as he glared at the offending soldier, who had the decency to look sheepish enough but who then yelped as a ricocheting enemy bullet nearly slammed into his head and instead punctured a hole in the wall behind him.

Everyone dropped down on the ground in the blood and muck, all of them muttering curses and yelling out a colorful stream of profane words. Then all of a sudden the world seemed to abruptly go silent. Johann's ears were somehow blocked, he batted the side of his head on both sides but the silence just seemed to go on. Then he was abruptly thrown off his feet along with the rest of his men as the entire dropship they'd taken cover in tumbled and rolled round and round with them inside of it.

His hearing came back with a loud popping noise before he cringed in pain as he was rag dolled around the inside of the dropship occasionally crashing into one of the dead bodies or one of his surviving soldiers all of whom were screaming their lungs out at the highest decibel they could muster. He was actually surprised to hear that Lance Corporal Hyde had a nice set of soprano pipes on him.

Seemingly floating for a moment he cursed his luck when he saw where he was dropping this time around as his world became black, but not before feeling the pain shoot throughout his face from its point of origin which happened to be his nose.

 **=/\=**

 **[Lieutenant George McLaughlin]  
Unknown Turian Colony – Designated XC-01-2999  
East Quadrant – 5 hrs after Turian city was taken…**

George was by no means one of the more xenophobic of his race, heck, he was actually slightly more tolerant of aliens than most his kind but even then he was raised to question the motives of the xenos. It was this mentality that made him aim his sidearm at the strange Tunaroid female, she was blue and had a strange fringe like head where the hair was supposed to be. Her frantic screams and shouting as she glowed blue made him keep his distance, the two men from his squad pointed their weapons at her awaiting his orders to shoot. But for whatever reasons he could not order them to fire and instead told them to keep their weapons trained on her while he himself slowly holstered his weapon and approached the xeno.

His gut feeling and instincts were screaming at him to back away and order her shot but he was curious. So far the only aliens he'd seen had been those birdlike xenos with the strange mandibles and metallic exoskeleton, which makes this Tunaroid blue alien woman an oddity in this entire warzone. Which also reminded him of the floating drone like device that had been following her, when one of the men had checked it after shooting it, they found it to be a camera. Oddly advanced but utilized a set of programming and processing power vastly different from any used in the Covenant.

The alien's body glow intensified and George stopped in his tracks. She glared at him and he was mystified by the way her facial expressions were so much like a Tunari, he glanced back at his men and spoke on their internal radio frequency. "When I give the signal, you tranq her, got that?"

Both men gave subtle nods as they, discretely as possible, pressed a button on their weapons switching out the lethal rounds with stun or tranquilizer rounds. They still aimed their weapons at the blue alien but this time shuffled around to get a better shot whilst George distracted the alien by moving and backing away from her, she was obviously not used to stressful and violent situations judging by her fearful sideway glances and sudden widening of her eyes as she figured out that the other two men were moving around her. Before she could blast them again with that strange power of hers George had done his famous quick-draw, pulling out his sidearm and with it on full stun fired off several bolts.

The other two soldiers fired off a few stun rounds and while the alien managed to get off a blast at George, who flew off the ground and landed a meter away, she quickly dropped to the ground having overdosed on the huge amount of tranquilizer and stun bolt rounds. It unnerved the two soldiers however, when she began snoring lightly, one of them having an itchy trigger finger but snapped out of it when George limped toward them.

"Well this seems like a wonderful find," George remarked excitedly as he looked down at their newly acquired prey. "Wanna have some fun with this one?"

The soldiers looked at each other and shook their heads, the one on the left, with the vertical optic visor on his helmet spoke in reply, the disgust evident in the tone and harshness of his voice.

"I don't swing that way, Lieutenant." He said, "Such thoughts are impure and not one you should indulge, also we should just shoot her and be done with it…sir."

"I agree with this lughead but I say a woman's a woman, even if she's blue, or don't got hair." The other soldier said, he sounded eager at the prospect of trying out the new alien woman. "I wonder what kind of experience she'll bring or if there are any others like her, who says we can't enjoy ourselves on the job."

"Whoa, settle down both of you." George looked alarmed at both of their replies. He quickly sought a way to dissuade them, mostly the second guy, of their thoughts. "She's now a prisoner of war, any violations of her rights as a POW will not be tolerated."

"You started it, Lieutenant." The first guy deadpanned to which George slumped his shoulders in defeat and nodded muttering _'yes I did, didn't I?'_.

"Anyways," George straightened up and smiled behind his helmet, "Let's get her back to the FOB, I'm sure High Command will want to analyze how she got here in the first place. Now…who's going to carry her?"

Both of his men were nowhere in sight as he looked up. He had just looked down at the blue woman for a moment as he asked that question and suddenly the two of them had disappeared! ' _Insubordinate punks!_ ' George growled as he bend down and with a careful haul he had the woman's unconscious form over his right shoulder whereupon his two underlings, as if by magic, reappeared with their weapons at the ready and heads on a swivel.

"We got you covered, Lieutenant." One said as George sighed, with a shake of his head he stomped on toward the FO—

"uh, Lieutenant, the FOB is this way." The other soldier helpfully pointed out, if George wasn't burdened by such a prize he would have clapped the guy upside the head. Then again…

"Corporal Giovanni," George said, opening a secure one-to-one communiqué with the first soldier, a smirk on his lips, "I order you to slap Corporal Muller on the head."

"With pleasure, sir." Giovanni grinned as he moved around the Lieutenant careful not to draw his comrade's attention. When he was right behind his fellow Corporal he raised the butt of his weapon and slammed it as hard as he could on the back of Muller's head. In a rather comical display, Corporal Muller didn't immediately collapse, but staggered groggily from side to side, managing to catch himself as he was about to fall and then finally keeled over and fell on his back.

George stopped and stared with a mixture of conflicting emotions ranging from disbelief to relief, confusion and glee. He then looked at Corporal Giovanni and with a sigh he pointed at the now cataleptic form of Corporal Muller and ordered, "You're carrying him, now."

"Oh man…"

"And don't bitch about. I told you to slap him not knock him out!"

The two men now equally burdened made their way past the marching column of mechanized tanks, APCs, IFVs, Walkers and Crawlers. A single Titan beast in the distance was visible but those nearest them gawked at the two men and a few outright laughed though they stopped when they saw the blue alien woman.

Entering the Command Prefab building and dumping his burden, George snapped off a salute before standing at parade rest. The Colonel, looked at him, then at the xeno woman he'd brought before shaking his head and then dismissed non-essential staff members leaving him with the Lieutenant, another Colonel (junior grade), two Battalion Commanders, three Mech Commanders, the Commander of the Super Soldiers, the four Clone Commanders and the lone Psi Commander. All in all there were about 14 officers in the command prefab including George himself. He didn't feel nervous, oh no, he was downright soaking in his sweat as he felt the eyes of all those senior officers on his person.

"Explain why you've absconded with an alien woman, Lieutenant?" The Colonel, Markus Thawne, said in an amused tone as he stole a glance at the blue alien. "Not planning on evoking your _Clamstruna_ , are you?"

"Wha-no, sir!" George stuttered but grinded out his reply. "I don't intend to do that…I have a wife, sir."

"That hasn't stopped anyone now has it, am I right lads?" George cringed as the officers all laughed at the colonel's joke. "Jesting aside, I am glad you brought this to my attention. You may leave."

"Sir!" George put on a hasty salute before hurrying out of the building, glad to get out of the old man's sphere of bad influence.

 **=\/=**

 **[Covenant Imperial High Command – Tunar Homeworld]  
[** _ **Tunar City – Government District**_ **]  
[Ministry of Benevolence – Level B29]  
[Nondescript Office]**

A darkened room with sparse lighting sat a long oval shaped table. All around it sat men and women in different uniforms all wearing the same drab and sour expressions. They've been waiting for almost four hours now in this room waiting for the arrival of a person of great importance, one who should not be kept waiting but who saw fit to keep everyone else waiting…rather ironic and frustratingly annoying to say the least, as is the opinion of the people in the dark room.

"How much longer do we have to wait for that brat?" Melinda Wiles, the Head of Imperial R&D, whined as she checked her chronometer via NeLI. "He may be the Imperator but I've got places to be—"

She was cut off as someone, interrupted her, the voice was smooth and young, same as the person who wielded it. He walked through a seemingly invisible door, which was in fact the wall, and settled himself above Melinda's chair. He looked down at her and winked, causing the woman to blush and her face beet red, the pressure he exuded enough to wet herself. She squirmed uncomfortably and was disappointed as he took his seat, then seemed to recover herself before glaring at the young man from across the table.

The others present barely held back their snickers of amusement but one look from the Head of R&D and they stopped. The Imperator, a young and impetuous man, began the meeting with the opening words…

"By the Holy One's grace we gather this meeting, for with his wisdom and power do we seek guidance and a swift resolution to our agenda…"

The gathered men and women nodded to each other and with a clearing of his throat, the Imperial Spymaster began his usual report, mostly involving the not so discrete underground resistance movements within the conquered territories, from those few worlds the Covenant didn't bother to eradicate outright. Slave uprisings on those same worlds had been quelled but resources were lost, action was needed.

All eyes fell on the Imperator as he looked thoughtful, a mere second later and his eyes were glowing purple and just as fast it dissipated. Looking at the gathered members of this meeting, he relayed the orders of the Holy One. "Pacification of the populace is no longer feasible, the Holy One demands total and complete eradication the Xu'ur race, the 70th Convoy is to deploy the entire contingent of Xenomorphs on their world."

Nods of agreement went around and the Spymaster once again made his report, this time on current incursion from the Unbidden. Not much there for the Holy One to do about except demanding the 3rd Fleet to attack their last stronghold in the _Opalari_ system in the _Theraia_ nebula of the _Uwari_ Sector, their most northern position relative to their homeworld.

After that all attention was drawn to the new war. It was what everyone was expecting throughout the meeting as it began, the situation reported was that the aliens had fired upon a science vessel. In response the 1st Fleet was dispatched to assess the threat and neutralize the hostile force if possible. It turned out to be a slaughter as the enemy fleet was quickly decimated, what data was recovered from the wreckages and of the studies conducted on the corpses indicated that these new aliens came from beyond the void barrier between the outer galactic arm and the one closest to it. It was through a gateway that their territory was open for further incursions, the drain in resources from that invasion when it began was significant but with the focus on mineral processing and mining due to the near limitless bountiful energies of having two Dyson Spheres, the drain was negligible at best. Though it still put a dent in the economy just to maintain the fleets as they were all deployed around the Covenant and in enemy territory, as pointed out by the Finance Minister, for now the current focus was on the intelligence gathered from the deciphered alien codex which proved to be a fascinating read.

"So this alliance…or rather xeno conglomerate, _rules_ the galaxy?" The Minister of War, Sotark Bull, stated with a hearty laugh. "Delusional at best and at worst they are insane to believe themselves masters of this behemoth!"

The Minister waved his arm around the table at the now holographic image of the galaxy. He went on to point out, indicating with his pointed finger where their empire was located, on the outer galactic arm near the edge, in that bundle of clustered stars were probably millions of stars all possible hosts to life and the ever present dangers…

"Even their galactic map is a sham! Look at it!" The image of the galaxy as seen by the Turians and their allies compared against the galactic image of the Tunarin showed huge gaps in the former, "We've not yet explored outside of our own clusters but the data we received from the Curator archives shows us that there are more stars in this galaxy than meets the eye or scanners."

"Uh, Sotark, I think it's best you leave the science to me." Melinda smiled sweetly at the man before she added, "Otherwise you'll be as intelligent as I am."

The man in question went red with rage but he was stopped before he burst. "I believe that's enough out of you two…behave yourselves." The Imperator warned them each with a hard glare, before motioning for the Spymaster to continue his report.

"Thank you," Spymaster Bleden Mark, bowed gracefully then cleared his throat. "Aside from the usual, such as that satellite we found sneaking around our FOB in Gelanix Beta, reports from the newly conquered planet we're designating XC-01-2999, one of the squads stumbled upon a living Asari."

This elicited gasps from those around the table as they sat on the edge of their seat now to listen closer. The Imperator's attention was likewise completely enraptured with the new information.

"The general in command of the operation on XC-01-2999 has seen fit to put the Asari on the next transport back here to the capital. As we speak the transport is in transit and will be reaching Jump range within the next fifteen hours."

"What of these 'humans'?"

Silence permeated the room. The subject regarding the humans was blasphemous at best and discussing it was downright treasonous, Science Minister felt the gaze of the Imperator burning a hole in his head and turned away.

"We'll deal with that later." The Imperator's word was final on the matter, it would remain be seen whether or not they would be discussing said topic on the existence of the humans.

There was a lull in the conversation as whispers of information and excited voices exchanged information between one another before the Imperator sighed and the silence that followed was apprehensive. He looked at each member of the meeting and spoke with a tired voice, "Let us adjourn for now, we'll meet back here in….ten minutes. Gives you time to mingle and discuss this, oh and Bleden I want to speak to you so you stay here a moment."

"As you wish." Bleden Mark bowed once again and waited for the others to leave the room before turning to look at the Imperator with concern. "What is it you wish to speak to me about?"

"I'm in dire need of an heir…" The Imperator said despairingly, his seemingly chipper and demanding demeanor suddenly faded away to reveal a tired man, bags under his eyes, dark rings around said eyes, pale skin and as Bleden looked in his eyes, they were red.

"How long do you have?" Concern building in his stomach as well as fear…if the Imperator should die without an heir, without another conduit, then the power of the Holy One…His guidance would be lost! "Whom have you chosen?"

"Calm yourself." Bleden's face heated in embarrassment as he recovered his wits. "There is still enough time to find a suitable candidate…I know of one whose potential is unmatched even by me."

The old Spymaster frowned in doubt at this revelation. Surely the Imperator was delusional in his weakened state. What was he even talking about?!

"Don't doubt me!" The Spymaster winced, he forgot that the Imperator could read minds…bloody psychics…oh wait, he was a psychic too, how stupid of himself to forget that too! "Are you really that stupid?"

"Sorry."

"Nevermind that. I need you to ensure that the boy is secured and safe," The Imperator instructed, "He is currently in a hospital here in the Capital, he's comatose but the power within him is strong and immeasurable. Promise me you'll guide him when I am gone…he is to be the future of our race, a beacon and the seal that ensures our pact…our Covenant with the Holy One remains intact. Promise me."

With a solemn vow the Spymaster nodded enthusiastically as he agreed, "I promise on my life that I will make sure the boy is enthroned as the new conduit."

"Good…now what's this I hear about your daughter running off with a spice merchant?" Bleden's mood suddenly plummeted as he glowered at the leader and prophet of the Tunarin. ' _Sometimes I forget that he's a bit of a knucklehead…_ ' the Spymaster grimaced internally as he fought back a sigh.

 **=\/=**

 **[In a dark room somewhere…]**

Voices

There were voices…I could hear them but they're so distant.

I fade in and out of consciousness it's become annoying yet the voices are still there. I hear them now…angry…shouting…an argument? I can't tell…oh no the darkness…

There they are again….the voices are back…calm and more peaceful this time, no more arguing…I feel cold…so cold…I-I can't feel my body…I can't see anything…why?

The voices…I hear them…clearer yet not…

"…waking…ert…te…ri…ing…."

So disjointed…disorganized…unintelligible. I don't understand why this is happening. I'm so cold…now I'm warm…I like this warm feeling it's…refreshing…

The voices they return more clearer now I can finally feel but now I don't want to…the pain…AAARRGGGHHHH!

NOOOO! MAKE IT STOP!

…

….

Make it…mak…make…it…it…sssstt…too…stop….

"…Laz…r.s…P..oj..ct…s…succ…ful…mo…to…ext…cedur…"

My sight begins to fade and in the end…as the darkness embraces me again….I feel content….

 **=/\=**

 **Longest chapter yet at over 17k words, different POVs, and cookies for anyone who can guess what the last bit was about. Again, I would like to thank you all for reading and taking the time to Fav and Follow. After such a long time taken to update this story, I apologize once again for that but with the new update I just had to include them somehow and this was how I did it but I feel like I could do better.**

 **But I guess I'll do so in the next Chapter. As always, I'd like your thoughts on where I can improve on my mistakes which I'm sure you'll see where I didn't. Have a nice day or night or whatever. Anyways I've seen people do these sort of things and in no way am I copying if a lot of them do it but here it is below.**

 **=\/=**

I watch with interest as I opened the menu. There it was, Crusader Kings 2: Game of Thrones Mod v2.0. I couldn't remember how long I've waited for this mod to come out, oh ever since I heard about and seen its trailer, is how long! Cackling like mad I selected the new game menu and was greeted with a similar menu from CK2 where the main houses, the biggest ones and most powerful ones that is, are shown. The mod is set in and during the start of the books or was it the TV show, I can't remember which, but anyway that's the starting point however, there is that option to start a little over 200 years before the events of the books or the show, to just before the time Aegon conquered Westeros.

I moused over the various houses available for players and found that there weren't that many of them, mostly because the information about the minor houses themselves was not enough for a full reconstruction of the books and show to be incorporated into the game mod. However, that didn't mean we couldn't customize a house if I wanted to and that's exactly my plan, as soon as I figure out where the hell I'm going to start because I wanted to prepare for the Long Night looong before it comes.

So let's see here, I guess it wouldn't hurt to start a little before Aegon's conquest. I made the necessary selections and watched as the screen shifted to accommodate the landscape and weather of that time period, I have to hand it to the modders for this very awesome effort they put into their project. I give them a straight 10 for this. I decided to go with Essos and moused over a lot of what were equivalent to CK2's counties or baronies in this case.

Finding one that was ideally located between Essos and Westeros, isolated but with enough materials and resources and people for me to start my fledgling empire. It also helped that the territory I selected was independent which brought along a lot of risks as well as high rewards for owning such an area. The difficulty bar was nearly full, from what I can guess would be over two thirds of the bar.

I selected the customize house button and renamed the house and redid the sigil of the ruling noble family there. The ethnicity of my noble house that I decided on was Valyrian, their dynasty name Valkarion, and for the patriarch of my house I named him Vitiate of House Valkarion, a rather tall man of 30 years, with a trait of Strong, Stubborn, Kind and Wrathful. I made increased his Martial skill to 12, Steward skill to 9, Intrigue to 8, Diplomacy to 8, Scholar skill to 11 and increased his health by 5. I also made him a Skilled Tactician. It occurred to me that his age hadn't changed much and remained at 30 as I added his traits and skills, must be a glitch.

His profile picture, as it were, showed a square jawed man with platinum silver hair cropped with a single braid of his hair hanging past his collar bone. He wore chainmail armor with a leather tabard bearing his sigil over said chainmail. The sigil itself was nothing special since I found that there was a rather nice knock off of the Imperial dragon banner from the Elder Scroll series in the flag menu. There was also the saying of the house, it's motto, that needed to be customized and but I couldn't find an appropriate slogan to use.

Taking the better part of twenty minutes and 45 seconds, and deciding that history wouldn't mind, I took the words, " _Veni, Vidi, Vici_ …" as the words of my noble dynasty. It wasn't original but then again I'm not really creative when it comes to these sorts of things.

I made the finishing touches here and there and redoubled my checks before I felt satisfied enough to continue. I pressed the play button and set the rules to default and then as I pressed past that and waited for the loading bar to fill up I got this odd sensation…like a needle was being pricked in the back of my head. I ignored it initially but then it became an unbearable pain and it was itchy as hell so I scratched it until I was on the floor scratching away furiously at the back of my head before getting back up, the itch was gone but that prickly feeling remained. Then as the bar was filled up I lost consciousness.

Only to wake up in a room I didn't recognize and found myself in a body that I knew wasn't mine, lying in a bed that I know wasn't mine either. Though I did see that Imperial Cyrodilic dragon banner hanging from the wall and after shaking my head I remember thinking, ' _What the hell is going on…where the heck am I?_ ' When without warning my vision narrowed as dark edges embraced my sight and time seemed to slow down to a grinding halt and in front of me a large box appeared with bright colored words written on it. It said:

 **[WELCOME VITIATE OF HOUSE VALKARION]**

 **[You have gained: Admin Privilege –** A passive ability that is able to tap into the CK2 Command Console via thought-activation. This ability has a cooldown time of 10minutes after use, and cost 100 MP to Activate. **]**

 **=/\=**

 **Work has let up somewhat but these cases still stack up everyday. How did you like that? Please leave a review or PM.**

 **Cheerio,  
Danen5.**


	7. Chapter 6: Revelations

**It's been a while, I know but my job has been demanding as of late, I apologize for that but who would have thought that marching could be so hard. I mean we all watch them do it but when it's our turn we suffer for it…my hands are blistered and my feet hurt but I haven't forgotten about this story, not while I still breath.**

 **Disclaimer: I'm legally obliged to comply with this so….yeah. I own nothing of Mass Effect or Stellaris or any other RTS elements from other notable RTS, FPS, TPS etc. games except this story and some of its AU or OC contents.**

 **=/\=**

 **(** _ **Gameplay Time: 2wks 12days 20hrs 22mins 10+secs**_ **)**

 **[2183 Citadel Era]  
[3000. 02. 12. Covenant Calender]**

 **[Undisclosed Cerberus Facility]  
[Unknown System]**

The Head Researcher in charge of the facility, Cameron Mane, a 57 year old man with a reputation for ruthless pursuit of his brand of science…which up until recently had been all but ignored due to constraints, not that further advances in this field of research was impossible but it did need funding. Which in recent days it had received a lot of, so there's that to be happy about he guessed. The Illusive Man is not one to be discussed by a mere scientist but right now Dr. Mane could practically prostrate himself in front of the Illusive Man for giving his research a chance to shine. And with the arrival of the _Subject_ to his facility, its projects will finally progress to what will be a dream come true.

He walked up to the single technician standing next to the man-sized pod, its shape a large cylinder, pristine white and sterile. Inside was the Subject, happily dozing off in La La land. He stood behind the technician and cleared his throat trying to catch her attention, and then in his best authoritative tone demanded, "How is the subject doing?"

The lab tech, a young woman, looked up at the man and broke into a happy smile, her eyes twinkling with excitement when she saw him, "Dad!" She exclaimed loudly causing the rest of the other lab techs to roll their eyes, shrug or simply ignore the odd girl. Not that they would call her that in front of her father…it'd be like signing a one-way ticket to a remote outpost somewhere to the middle of freaking nowhere! Though many think it's more likely Cerberus would just grind you down into paste and use you for their next experiment…that's not true right?

The aforementioned girl just so happened to be a bright and talented, not to mention a brilliant scientist and advent researcher in the field of genetic engineering and manipulation. Her name, Alicia Mane, aged 27 with bright-fiery red hair which had a slight tinge of orange along several strands and edges of her bangs, probably artificial coloring. She was slender of form, lustrous curves accentuated by her tight fitting lab clothes but hidden under a classic white lab-coat. She stood at 5 feet and 9inches tall, her skin fair of complexion and with a smattering of tan while her near oval shaped face was a picture of an angel as some would call her, on her cheeks she had light freckles that seemed to add to the alluring blue eyes that could pierce even the hardest of hearts…if she could at least take the time and find a guy that was. Basically she was married to her work but this new addition to the lab was going to be the ultimate test of her resolve in conducting said work as she had begun to have some rather un-ladylike thoughts creeping into her science filled head. Her father could only pray…or shudder, whichever one the situation concerning his daughter would require at any given moment with her work…or as far as the Subject was concerned.

For now though she was just too excited to see her father and to tell him just how much this new addition was going to broaden their understanding of modern genetics and unlock untapped potential within the human DNA. Then again they wouldn't have done this kind of thing what with the laws and regulations that no doubt would interfere with their work, if they had conducted their research in Alliance or Citadel territory and certainly not in the Terminus systems since that'll just get you an early retirement, which was why Dr. Mane accepted the Illusive Man's offer when he was approached many years ago though he didn't have a daughter at the time.

Dr. Mane gave his daughter a welcome smile as she walked up to him, giving him a bear hug, all the while giggling madly and muttering thanks for the opportunity to study an extraordinary subject.

"Can you believe it?! Kyah!" She squealed putting her father at arms' length and staring up at his face. Her eyes still lit up with the excitement of having to study the new subject. ' _I wonder why I'm not insane yet._ ' Dr. Mane thought in exasperation at his daughter's antics. She usually couldn't hold in her excitement whenever there was a new breakthrough or on the verge of understanding something better, or mayhap even finding new information or just getting the chance to study something astonishing.

"This is one of the most significant events ever!" She declared as she let go of her father, who stared at her with a single brow raised in concern, she twirled around three times before stopping at the base of the horizontally placed cylindrical tube that housed their subject, a man, nay not a man, an alien man, whose species had evolved on a different world, a species remarkably similar to humans yet foreign at the same time, it truly fascinated her and she wanted to know more. "If we can determine the markers in his DNA to be similar to humans…our humans, we can unlock the secrets to how his humanity evolved to such a degree! Then again I wonder if he even is human! I mean look at him!"

She told her father, her voice raised to a scream rising from the lowest to the highest pitch her vocal cords could afford to give her, whilst giving everyone else throbbing ear drums. She was breathing rather rapidly and her heart was pounding against her rib cage at an astonishing rate clearly excited. Her father widened his eyes in concern as he rushed to her side when she was about to collapse, it was almost inconceivable that he might have heard Alicia's heart banging against her ribs as if begging to be let out to dance on the sterile floor...now that was an odd image.

"Damn it, Alicia, why can't you ever take things slowly?" Dr. Mane admonished his daughter who simply nodded before muttering that she was okay and he let her go. She looked a bit wobbly on her feet and he made to catch her again but she batted away his hands and said she was fine. When it looked like she could stand under her own power and not keel over from the blood rushing into her brain, the Head Researcher cleared his throat and asked once more, his tone attaining a business-like hint to it. "How is the subject?"

"W-what?" He stopped the urge to rub his nose as he waited for his daughter's focus to return. She still looked a bit dazzled from her overdose of excitement…something he had not counted on when he made her. Oh that's right, Alicia Mane is the product of genetic engineering that was the first thing he conducted his research on…granted his main reason had been to revive his dead wife, one of the reasons he pursued genetics research with such drive and passion, but gradually he came to look upon the product of his DNA and that of his wife's to be a miracle, of his own making of course. It was painstakingly bloated in mistakes from day one and added with the low funding he had gotten several disappointing and disturbing results until that fateful day when he accidently tumbled and knocked over a vial into his mixture and a new formula was created. He replicated the process, after going through several vials and chemical reagents for a straight week and therein spent the next few months perfecting his formula.

When all was done he once again conducted his experiment and lo and behold a miracle of genetic engineering was born. Using the last of his wife's DNA he created an embryo (AN: the technical stuff of which I'll leave to any expert who happens to read this), and with that he added his own DNA into the mix and watched as the two combined and within a few weeks, in the artificial womb created for the specific reasons of such experiments, a little tiny baby was in the first stages of forming its body. He had not brought back his wife…no…but he did create something that he knew would have made her very happy. So when the little girl was born, artificially of course, the methods of her conception were a closely guarded secret that only the Illusive Man, Dr. Mane and several top scientists were cleared for. Miranda Lawson was not privy to such secrets as of yet, god knows how she was going to react when she hears about the project. That's why Cerberus acted in cells, acting independently not knowing what the other cells are up to except for the select few and the Illusive Man himself, Dr. Mane was thankful for that because he didn't want the genetically engineered biotic woman to know or it could get messy for him. Oh but Alicia knew what she was and how she came to be and as a little girl had shown extreme intelligence for her age, so her education under her father began and arguably she had surpassed him in many ways as she grew, much like his wife had when she was alive.

Right now though she was really stressing him out, her behavior had steadily gone from bad to worse, not that it impeded her brilliance and performance when it came to her work but it just didn't seem right, somehow. She was an odd person, a bit of an introvert but overall she was nice to people who worked with her. Although certain persons do get to see that childish and sometimes disorienting personality of hers, these were the ones she grew up knowing and considered her family. Her father most of all had to put up with all of her quirks but he loved her so much he was willing to ignore them…most of the time. So now he reigned in his impatience and waited for Alicia to get her bearings which she did and had looked flustered with her cheeks red in embarrassment.

"Hehehe…sorry, dad." She chuckled nervously twiddling her thumbs in front of her, eyes darting around the room looking at the other scientists in the room, who all were conveniently facing away from her. "I didn't know what came over me."

"Well it happens." Dr. Mane said, giving her an understanding pat on the head. She closed her eyes and purred like a kitten, some of the nearby lab techs could have sworn they saw her face morphed into a catlike anime image as well as being twice as big. But it was probably the lights or something playing tricks on their minds…yeah…the lights were playing tricks on them.

He stopped patting her head and turned toward the tube, Alicia pouted with disappointment that he'd stopped. "How is the subject?" he repeated his previous question for the third time, perhaps third time will be a charm.

"Oh right." Alicia giggled whilst scratching the back of her neck, eyes suddenly darting around her immediate area obviously looking for something. "I forgot about that."

Another woman, this one similar in age, body type and height to Alicia walked up to the pair and handed over a data pad to her counterpart. Alicia seemed surprised before giggling nervously again and taking the pad from her colleague.

"Thanks Mary." Alicia beamed happily to the woman who politely smiled and went back to her station. A table on the other side of the subject's canister, she settled down and began her work, ignoring the odd looks her other colleagues were sending her way. Sometimes being friend to the local weirdo had its downsides…she sighed.

"Anyways, dad." Alicia looked at her father who was beginning to think his lab was a ghost house with how quiet it's been since he came in. He gave his daughter his full attention, gesturing her to continue. "Thanks, as to the subject, who's really cool by the way, his vitals are great and holding steady despite being…you know, formerly dead. Which reminds me, why weren't _we_ included in the Lazarus project, you'd think Timmy would have let us in on it so our expertise would have been used to contribute to the restructuring of the subject's…"

For a moment he zoned out before a snapping finger in front of his face brought him back. "What did I miss?"

"Come on, daaad!" Alicia whined, pouting at his inattention when she'd gone into a lengthy explanation on the benefits of their cell's expertise on genetic engineering and how it could have been used to make the Lazarus Project produce results much faster than the current trend allowed. "You never listen."

"Sorry, little angel." The doctor apologized to his rather gifted yet slightly crazy daughter, who was he going to fool? He should have seen this coming in the first place. His creation, with its brilliance, had to have some odd tendency and it so happens that she turned out to be a little insane when it came to anything related to genetics and DNA. He did laugh a little when he saw her pout because she looked adorable, like she was 8 years old again.

"But the subject is fine, then?" he said trying to distract her from her current thoughts. She seemed to come back out of it before nodding but muttered how the subject's reconstruction would have been a whole lot faster if she and her father were there to oversee the project. He frowned at this. He needed to get it in her head that the Illusive Man's decisions weren't something to be messed with or disobey. "Listen, angel, I know you have all these great and wonderful ideas on how to speed things up for the research we have but I need you to remember who we work for…understand?"

"Yes, dad, I get it. Big Bad Timmy will kill us if we mess up his plans. Sheesh, that guy needs a vacation, heck I could use a vacation!" Dr. Mane and those who overheard her gasped in shock. She had never been this morbid before in any of her conversations…or maybe it's just a new brand of her crazy manifesting itself for the first time.

"Oooh look he's awake!" Alicia exclaimed gleefully whilst clapping her hands and looking into the transparent lid of the canister.

"What?!" the scientists all cried out in alarm as they saw that yes indeed the subject had awaken. His eyes, his unnaturally purple glowing eyes scanning the room and seemed to take notice of the wide eyed woman that had put her face on the glass, distorting her pretty face, she seemed excited.

"Hi!" She waved at the subject whose eyes had also widened, half in surprise and half in confusion. He did wave back which caused the young woman to shout out in her happy tune. He grimaced at that along with the rest of the lab techs but the doctor was looking at the subject with a kind of fascination he only had when something truly captivates his attention and that was the glowing purple eyes which seemed to fade until only a set of violet eyes were staring warily at him and his daughter.

This was going to be an interesting research opportunity, the doctor could practically feel the experiments and formulas creeping into his cranium all of which would unlock the kind of muscle and bone growth that the subject had shown, it was an evolutionary miracle not to mention the enhancements added to said muscles and bones, making this alien man as strong as a Krogan and nearly as tall. To top all of that off he gets to study why the man's eyes were glowing purple and see if it had anything to do with the spikes in his brain chemical makeup as the images swirled around erratically when his eyes had glowed.

"We're going to have so much to talk about in the coming days." Dr. Mane spoke to the subject and a sinister smile crept along his face in a wide grin. The lab techs that saw this shivered, a few were mumbling about how the apple didn't fell to far from the tree. While the man in the cylindrical tube gulped, his lips moving rapidly, little did the lab techs knew that he was praying to the Holy One to deliver him from whatever evil was going to happen to him, never mind the fact that these people in what could only be described as scientist garbs, looked like him, a Tunari. Maybe he was in some sort of Tunarin Healing Facility…or not, any hopes were quickly squashed as the strange orange vertical hexagon was displayed proudly on the wall behind the older man.

A single thought did go through the man's mind as he gazed fearfully into the crazy look in the eyes of the elderly man and the pretty young woman, ' _I am so retiring early!_ '

 **=/\=**

 **(** _ **Gameplay Time: 2wks 19days 14hrs 56mins 43+secs**_ **)**

 **3000\. 01. 12**

 **[From: Minister of Science Directorate – Imperial R &D Department]  
[Subject: Asari Species]  
[To: Supreme Martial Commander Akbar Khan]**

With the conclusion of our dissection and investigation into the biological makeup and mysteries of the lone Asari captive we acquired, we have determined that the Asari species is a danger to ourselves and the rest of the galaxy. In the detailed statistical data attached to this missive you'll find the technical reasons behind our conclusions.

Included amongst the many threats this Asari species pose to the Tunarin Covenant, is the fact that their reproductive system is parasitic in nature, allowing them to essentially create more of themselves by taking behavioral traits of their intended and transplanting that information within themselves and thus adding it to their offspring which affects how they behave, in close proximity to that of the sponsor, to allow for the birth of a pure Asari, though it is to be noted that not much detail was acquired about this species' social relationships with their _partners_ of a different species other than that newborn Asari would share only behavioral traits of the other species but remain as an Asari, purely.

This implies that the Asari, in all scenarios, would outlive and outbreed the rest of the galaxy's species within a few centuries. Action is required to not allow such a parasite to remain. My colleagues and I have proposed a planned development of a new biological weapon specifically designed to affect the Asari genetic makeup. It would be similar to what they did to the Krogans, however, where as they possibly neutered them via high mortality rates per birth, our weapon will simply cause the Asari species to die out instantly. Any Asari that comes into contact with the weapon will decay from the inside out through a series of nano-molecular bots that will eat through the Asari entire body. We request permission to research and develop this weapon at the earliest possible time.

All pertinent information detailing further the essential data regarding the Asari's capabilities regarding their manipulation of dark matter, are attached to this missive alongside the statistical data pack.

By the Most Holy,  
Minister of Science Directorate – Head of Research and Development  
Salazar Snipe

 **=/\=**

 **[Unsurveyed Star System]**

 **[8** **th** **Fleet/Holy Hammer]**

 **Fleet Composition:  
1x [** _ **Support Class**_ **\- Battleship]  
2x [** _ **Artillery Class**_ **\- Battleships]  
15x [** _ **Javelin Class**_ **\- Cruisers]  
15x [** _ **Hunter Class**_ **\- Cruisers]  
30x [** _ **Corsair Class**_ **\- Destroyers]  
30x [** _ **Streamer Class**_ **\- Destroyers]  
107x [** _ **Interceptor Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
100x [** _ **Torpslinger Class**_ **\- Corvettes]  
Total Contingent: 3 Battleships, 30 Cruisers, 60 Destroyers, 207 Corvettes = 300 Ships**

 **[Flagship:** _ **Hammer – Support Class Battleship**_ **]  
[Adm. Udnoy Blue]**

The newest admiral on the block, a former pirate king who up until 2990 had been the scourge of the 7 _Plathori_ Hyper-lanes in the Yevin sector, now stands proudly on the bridge of his newest ship courtesy of the Yevin Shipyards, one of the best shipyards in the whole damn empire. If he was being honest with himself, he would gladly admit to anyone who would listen that the Yevin Sector's shipwrights deserved to be praised for their craftsmanship when it comes to building big ships. The cruisers, destroyers and corvettes in his fleet he didn't give two shits about except for his new baby, the _Hammer_ and boy it can hammer just about anything heading his way, short of a Titan.

With a Tachyon Lance as its main spinal mounted bow weapon capable of unleashing a literal torrent of hellish blue beams of death, its core containing the _Carrier_ variant of two hangars that each housed two full _wings_ of Mk.3 Advanced Strike Fighters for a total of 4 _wings_ , as well two flak artillery turrets capable of discouraging even the most skilled fighter pilots from even thinking about closing in for a bombing run, then there were the two small Stormfire-autocannon turrets mounted alongside the point-defense systems to help against curious corvettes and if necessary enemy fighters. While at the stern core there were two medium turrets both of which were Gamma Laser turrets that could deal out considerable amount of damage to enemy hull and armor at medium to close range somewhere within the area of no less than 100 thousand kilometers away (AN: I'm guessing on that…space is big after all and lasers can go very long distances though I've heard they lose power or energy the further they go…I'll let you tech heads do the math since I'm just a story writer and not a scientist).

Like all Tunar ships of that particular design, it was sleek with a streamlined arrow-like superstructure but if Udnoy was to be honest with himself, he'd say it was more of a spearhead than an arrow, and had a length of more than 3km but less than 4km, an average width of 1.1km with the superstructures at three critical slants increasing it by 0.3km each. It had four immense Impulse thrusters to maneuver in sublight speeds and housed a Zero-point reactor that powered all of its shields, weapons and computer systems along with various other miscellaneous yet important sub-systems…such as life support and the internal fabricators and matter replicators. It was truly one of the most advanced _Support_ class battleships currently in service with the Tunarin Navy, and though he didn't show it outwardly, the admiral was grinning like a kid who got his _Viszlantin_ presents early in the year.

And the Holy One was the ever generous presenter of such a lavishly dangerous gift for the once long ago Pirate King. Udnoy could not have picked a better time to repent for his sins…then again one wrong move and its straight to the slammer for him what with his track record and whatnot.

He was a reformed citizen for crying out loud! There wasn't any need for the heavy security! It's not like he was going to abscond with the damned ship even if presented with the chance.

"That's not what you're subconscious is saying, _Admiral_." Undoy groaned at hearing that voice, he turned to look in the direction of said voice and saw the bane of his existence.

"Ah, Warden Smythe." Udnoy put on his best smile for the Warden, who did not look amused at all, yeah well the old pirate didn't feel at all happy with him so they were even.

"No we are not." The Warden, Smythe, scowled at him.

"Stop reading my damned mind!" Udnoy whined, this seemed to annoy the Warden so Udnoy opted to continue just for kick of it. "This is so not fair! I'm reformed, I'm one of the good guys now!"

"Your thoughts say otherwise and quit with the whining, I know what you're thinking."

"Yeah well I don't like it." Udnoy muttered irritably under his breath.

"Until High Command is confident you won't run away with _this_ ship, I'm going to be around for as long as they deem necessary and to be honest I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be." Warden Smythe said, this was by far the longest conversation they've had since the fleet left port. "And the sooner you behave yourself the sooner I get out of your hair and I get back to my vacation. So shut up and order the damn fleet to engage the enemy."

Said enemy was a variety of destroyer and corvette analogues along with a considerably lesser number of enemy cruisers. Though there were a few that did not match the profile of the Turian ships, like the strange purple sleek vessels sporting holes in the middle of their structures…whats up with that?

Udnoy pondered on the new alien ship type before his NeLI popped in with the relevant information on who owned the new ships. With both brows raised and a wolf whistle between his lips, he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at the Warden. "Well, well, looks like we got ourselves a _Flutari_ situation."

"Seriously?"

"What?" The admiral shrugged, "It is."

"Please refrain from any more porn references otherwise I'll be forced to incapacitate you on grounds of immoral behavior and language." The Warden warned the one time pirate who laughed it off with a wave of his hand and turned his attention back to the coming battle. The enemy fleet was arrayed at one of the planets, a total of 348 ships, most of which were corvettes and destroyers as shown on the tactical display, several red and orange holograms showed up, the red indicated friendly ships whilst the orange ones were the enemy each one of both colors were marked. But whereas the enemy ships were designated Menaces 1 through 348 and categorized into more understandable hull classifications, the red ships had far more details.

The two _Artillery_ class battleships were something to be proud of for the fleet, each wielding considerable firepower and capable of laying waste to several ships all on its own. However, its drawback, to which the new Admiral always shakes his head at, is that it is extremely vulnerable to enemy corvettes and destroyers and, Holy One forbid, fighters. This class of battleships is mostly an offensive platform designed solely to decimate enemy cruisers and battleships and to even go toe to toe against a Titan, but smaller ships have an easier time maneuvering out of the kinetic artillery batteries mounted on the ship. Therefore in response to this setback the top researchers and designers, who all claim that they receive new designs directly from the Holy One, came up with the _Streamer_ class destroyers, which are armed with flak artillery, Guardian PDF turrets and Stormfire autocanons , this ship was made for the purpose of providing supportive defense fire for the heavier and more offensive ships and therefore purely for defense purposes.

So with practiced ease of command and a healthy grasp of tactics and strategy the Admiral positioned his _Artillery_ battleships at the back of his line and set 15 each of the _Streamer_ destroyers to make sure no enemy corvette sneaks up on them. Then placed his flagship in between the two other battleships and ordered the remainders to form around him in a sort of semi-circle curved out in front of his position. The Warden looked thoughtfully at the formation and then at the man issuing the orders and tried to figure out what sort of move the newly minted admiral was making.

Udnoy had put his cruisers in the middle portion of the curve coming out from the center of it toward the rim which was where the rest of the destroyers were positioned. On the rim of the semi-circle itself were the corvettes, the _Torpslingers_ and the _Interceptors_ were positioned with ease of access in mind. Udnoy used his NeLI to finish issuing personal orders to the commanders of each ship utilizing the tactical display to drive his point home as well as a makeshift PowerPoint presentation. After the initial positioning of his fleet the Admiral smiled and turned to his minder, the Warden stared at the display before turning to the Admiral.

"Larger cone of fire?" Warden Smythe asked, Udnoy's smirk dropped and was replaced with a mixed pout and glare. "Corvette _Interceptors_ to watch stragglers and flankers while cruisers and destroyers to be the battering ram, and the _Torpslingers_ to provide missile and torpedo blankets."

"How did you know…wait never mind, don't answer that!" The admiral grumbled as he remembered he was talking to a psychic.

"Not a bad plan but you failed to take into account the enemy's maneuverability." Smythe's tone was that of a disappointed teacher, he then pointed out, "They have more corvettes so you'd best utilize your autocannons to their fullest, leave the _Artillery_ battleships to deal with the enemy cruisers. Have your destroyers protect gaps in your formation and let the _javelin and torpslingers_ loose, the missile blanket they churn out can overwhelm the enemy if not outright killing them first, that's assuming they stay put which is highly unlikely."

"Sir, the enemy fleet has sent out emergency transmissions…we've intercepted them and have now begun jamming the system's communications capabilities. We've also found their comm buoys and the fighters have destroyed them." The Tactical officer informed the admiral who looked happy upon hearing that.

"You know, I've been wondering how is it that we were able to break into their communications system." Udnoy wondered aloud, throwing a questioning look at the Warden, who raised an eyebrow at his query.

"I am not an encyclopedia, look through the files via NeLI." Warden Smythe grunted before flashing his eyes purple making his irritation known. Admiral nodded making a zipping gesture over his mouth.

"Sir, we're getting hailed, somehow, it's from the enemy. What are your orders?" The Communications Officer spoke from her terminal gaining the attention of most of the bridge crew, the silence was thick and the waiting was even worse. Each Tunari wondered what their peculiar leader was thinking, as Udnoy stood there with a blank face until he smiled, slowly.

"Answer it…audio only." The smile never left his face as he gave his order.

"… _diance, you have entered Asari space_." The voice was distinctly female and quite soothing too but each crewmen on the bridge knew this to be a trick by the xeno, one can never trust the voice of a species as parasitic as the Asari and by stroke of luck they have stumbled upon the first world owned by the mono-gendered race. Udnoy couldn't believe his luck, oh but he did after all he was once a pirate and pirates are among the luckiest if they serve the right employer, and even the Warden was surprised yet still suspicious that this was a trap by the Turians. " _You have 20 minutes to leave the system before we are forced to take lethal measures of defense_."

"You hear that?" Udnoy jerked his thumb toward nothing in particular but the Warden knew what he meant. "They will be _forced_ to take lethal measures. Haha!"

The admiral laughed, slapping his thigh to emphasize his amusement, the Warden was likewise amused but not enough to openly make a fool of himself in front of the crew. "Enough of this childish behavior, you are an admiral of the Tunarin Military, act like it." Smythe reprimanded the former pirate who stopped shaking bodily up and down and wiped away small tears from his eyes.

"I haven't heard that since my days as a pirate…oooohhhh so scary….ohhh." Udnoy waved his hands in the air and pranced about the command platform ignoring the angry growl emanating from the Warden, the crew near and below him hid their laughs and giggles while quite a lot just wished they'd have been transferred to someone else who took their work seriously and not so annoying.

"Will you stop it!" Smythe snapped sharply, halting the man's antics. "Get a hold of your senses and answer the damned xeno before I take command and have you thrown in the brig!"

"Sheeesh, you're no fun."

Warden Smythe snarled, it was a low and guttural sound, primal and deadly, warning the admiral to cease and desist or else. His glare had also intensified as had his psionic aura, exhuming a feeling which caused the crews' hair to stand on ends and made them shiver with dread as the icy stare had turned into a furious scowl, the warden's eyes were now freely glowing a misty purple flaring once every microsecond. The admiral gulped, knowing any further tomfoolery on his part will result in his mind being flayed in response.

"Hehehe, sorry." It was a weak apology and Udnoy knew it, but he had to try and placate the warden's wrath…or risk a future mind flaying if one of his merry outbursts were to give the warden any reason to do that. So taking a more serious tone and expression the admiral turned to his crew, to his comm officer and nodded for her to open the line.

She did so looking at him to confirm that the line was open and the admiral can now talk with the xeno. He cleared his throat and with as much seriousness as he could muster he bellowed, "Our god demands blood for the slight against His people!"

A lot of brows were raised questioningly at that, but the admiral ignored the stares from his crewmen and continued. "Your species is a _blight_ upon the galaxy and it is our duty to the Most Holy to cleanse and purge the galaxy of your _taint_! Prepare to die, xeno! May whatever you worship have mercy on your souls for I surely will not show any!"

Using his own authorized codes, Udnoy closed down the communication lines between the two fleets and began issuing orders for the preplanned formation to be modified to compensate for the enemy's unimaginable and ridiculous speed. And so begins the second space battle between the might of the Covenant navy and that of the Citadel race.

' _Or is it the fourth…maybe fifth battle?_ ' Admiral Udnoy wondered in his mind, mentally tallying up the number of battles that they've had up until now with these Citadel alliance types…or was it the Turians themselves, he can't recall which came first, only shaking his head and shrugged nonchalantly. He came up with nothing on the number of space engagements as well, because believe it or not, counting had never really been his strong suit either. And neither is it the author's…just saying.

 **=/\=**

 **[2183 CE]**

 **[Terminus Systems]**

 **[Normandy – Briefing Room]**

" _I hope you've gathered your team, Commander._ "

The voice of Admiral Steven Hackett coursed out of the holographic representation of him over the large viewing holoscreen in the room. The Commander, in her casual wear, stood in the middle of the room facing the Admiral. Her team, some of whom were handpicked, and recruited by herself out of necessity and talents, stood with her.

"Yes, sir." Shepard nodded.

" _Good. I have a new mission for you, Intel has recently received word of another Cerberus facility deep within the Terminus sector. The contact was discovered and killed, most likely, but not before sending this video footage._ " The admiral's hologram was replaced by a video stream showing a large cylindrical tube opening and out of it stepped a man, he was tall, judging from the way he towered over the people in the video, by a clear two feet, or three in the case of the nearest scientist to the man. Was muscular and wore a black bodysuit, had short dark crop cut hairdo typical of a military standard but other than that his features were hidden by the opaque breathing apparatus attached to the bottom half of his face.

"Sir," Lt. Kaiden Alenko, Shepard's XO, and on again and off again boyfriend, stated, "Who is that?"

" _We don't know, that is why we're sending Commander Shepard and the rest of you in. You've had quite the success rate thus far making you the Alliance's best asset at present._ " Admiral Hackett's voice spoke as the video kept playing. " _We believe it's a super soldier, considering that this man_ *video pauses and a box sections out part of it, zooming in on a middle-aged man* _was a former Alliance Geneticist, whose expertise was on genetic manipulation and engineering. He was one of our top scientists in that field before he disappeared following the death of his wife…in_ **the** _Batarian raid._ "

"Batarian raid?" Wrex wondered aloud, earning him a disapproving glare from Shepard, and a scowl from Ashley, Garrus just shrugged while Tali kept staring off to the side for some reason, away from the screen.

" _Elysium._ " Shepard remembered that day well, she was there when the Batarians staged the raid, lots of people died or injured. Her heart still sings a sad song in remembrance of that time and burned with hatred when she thought back to it, the memory of Batarians killing innocents and taking the rest captive for slavery. She could still smell of the burning dead and hear the cries of the dying as she fought ferociously to keep the Batarians from taking any more lives, in the end all the decorations couldn't make up for the lives that were lost even if she was accredited with saving just as many. " _Shepard I need you to investigate the system I've uploaded on your galaxy map. Any edge we can find to stop Cerberus will be needed to curb their growing power and if they're up to no good with regards to the Rachni, you know what to do._ "

"Yes, Admiral. I know what to do…we all know what to do." Commander Shepard affirmed, her posture stiff as she nodded. Her team members all glanced at one another before nodding in agreement.

" _Oh and one more thing, Captain Anderson forwarded me some information regarding the new contacts from the galactic edge. I've sent it to you, good luck Commander. Hackett out._ " The old timer gave a slight nod of acknowledgement before his image blinked out.

She nodded a salute before the holoscreen blanked out completely and she turned to her assembled team. "We've got another mission but I want you all to try and find any leads on Saren as best you can. I'll do the same. For now if you need me I'll be on the bridge going over the mission details, though keep in mind that finding Saren is our top priority."

The others nodded before walking out of the room, all except Kaiden who looked at her with worry in his eyes. She saw him and put both hands on her hips, one brow raised questioningly before she sighed, "What is it, LT?"

"Nothing…just don't get too worked up over this." Kaiden said, shaking his hands and smiling a little at her before putting on a more serious expression and the tone of his voice changed. "I understand we have a duty to find Saren, I'm just saying that you need to relax a little, Commander. We'll find him eventually, it might take a little time but we'll find him."

"I hope so…" Shepard straightened herself, her eyes looking down at the floor. "But I can't help but feel that if I don't find him soon, something really bad is going to happen…after Feros I'm beginning to think that the images burned into my mind are telling me more than just the Reapers."

Kaiden paused whatever else he was going to say before he asked, "Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean…" Shepard hesitated, looking unsure of what to say or how to say it. She looked right at her second in command and decided to just get it out. "I mean that there might be something else worse than the Reapers."

"How much worse?" The Lieutenant really didn't want to know but he had to ask…didn't know why he had to ask but he did.

"Worse."

 **=\/=**

 _Covenant Intelligence Index  
Subject: Asari_

 _The Asari are a mono-gendered species capable of reproducing via neural means with any species, including their own, in a way that defies most biological and natural laws. No further analyses is needed on the matter, the species itself is a parasite feeding off the rest of the galaxy's races. They also possess an, as of current lack of information, ability to manipulate dark matter and affect gravity in an unnatural way._

 _NOTE: Combatants are advised not to engage Asari on their own, squads are to coordinate in order to bring down an Asari. GENE Warriors (Super Soldiers), ANDROID troopers and PSI Commandos are by far the most effective means of combating any Asari on a squad/group or individual basis. Special Units such as Xenomorphs or Titans prove quite effective as well…not to mention messy._

 _Threat Level: EXCEED  
NOTE: Other species within Citadel territories, as per their codex, also appear to exhibit these…biotic…abilities. Above threat level applies._

 **=\/=**

 **[2183 CE]  
[3000.01.29 CC]**

 **[Asari Colony near Turian space]  
[Groundside Combat ]**

 **[87** **th** **Shock Battlion – 23** **rd** **Armored Division]  
[Commander Rayne Alliser]**

"Enemy armored resistance spotted," the monotone voice of the onboard automated assistance computer within the 800 ton monster of a tank alerted the crew, Rayne among them.

"You heard the tin can," Rayne looked to her crew, "Take aim and fire main rounds, no armor piercing this time around. We all know what happened the last time."

"Aye, Commander." The three men and two other women in the command pit of the large tank spoke in unison. Rayne had seen firsthand during the engagement that their armor piercing rounds just bounced off harmlessly against the enemy's kinetic barriers, unless repeatedly used against the same target, the AP rounds would just get deflected seeing as they operated somewhat within the parameters of the xeno's mass effect theory, travelling at fast speed. Fast enough that the enemy xeno's kinetic barriers activated and proved to be very resilient against a few sporadic shots.

So this time the armored tanks of the Tunarin military of the 99th Army Group under General Thorum Tullius, were using High yield explosive rounds that proved even more effective than intended. After all a single shot of one of these shells could blow apart two or three blocks of the enemy's city, so their use was limited outside the city on open ground to avoid making more debris for the enemy to take cover in and for the 99th's heavy armor to get bogged down in. Out here in the open field the single tank was firing off HP rounds left and right like there was no tomorrow turning the once beautiful landscape into one of burning and crater littered muddy ground with an assortment of destroyed vehicles and corpses littering the battlefield.

"Enemy kill confirmed." The computer informed the crew.

"Find a new target, we need to get on top of that hill so we can provide support for our boys in the city." Rayne commanded. She was an experienced commander of various tank battles but all of them were simulations up until now, the battlefield was an ever changing thing more fickle than a player and just as deadly. Her plans needed constant changes but for now she was content in just moving slowly and blasting away at any enemy armor that came up against her tank, or rolled down the hill against her tank in this case.

"Commander, Forward Center is demanding to know why we haven't taken the hill yet." The radio man informed her not looking back but knowing enough of his superior officer to know that she was grinding her teeth. Rayne did not like it when the armchair commanders demanded something from her.

"Tell them to shove their demands up their asses. We're taking that hill when I say we will." Her crew stifled their snickering however tempting it was to laugh.

"Yes, commander." The radio man nodded and kindly informed HQ of what his commanding officer had just told him. He quickly muted his receiver before he went deaf from the shouting coming from the other side.

"That aside, we do need to take that hill and fast." Rayne said in a more serious tone, "Any ideas?"

"We could always dozer right over their lines." The driver suggested, she sounded hopeful but was disappointed when the commander shot that idea out of the way.

"And leave our flanks exposed? No."

"I just wanted to ask why we're the only tank tasked with taking this hill?" The co-driver asked from his spot, "We do have support from the infantry and the lighter armored vehicles but sending only one Behemoth to take the hill doesn't make sense. Don't we normally stampede an objective?"

"We do but apparently the aliens managed to decommission three of the Behemoths sent in to city and now the rest of the Behemoths have been sent in to help secure them." Rayne explained, best she could tell from the info she received from HQ was that those tanks had been ambushed and were likely in the process of being stolen, not good. "Still you're right, we need the other Behemoths to take this hill, it's slow now but we're still going to take it."

"I like your confidence, Commander." The Analyst, in charge of electronic warfare and maintain the tank both electronically and mechanically, said as he typed away on the terminal in his side of the tank command center. The center or _pit_ was cramped but large enough to allow some free movement. "Although I do wonder if sometimes your clash with Command is what landed us this illustrious duty."

"Those assholes don't get to demand results from me every damn time," The commander growled, her anger at her superiors' impatience grated on her nerves. "If I get the results they wanted I'll tell them then…no need to pester me so much every five minutes! It's annoying."

"Regardless of that," The other woman , the gun operator, added in her voice to the conversation. "We still need to take that hill. Perhaps if we can work with the commander of the infantry we can finally get the job done and over with. I need more time to groom my hair and it's so stuffy in here I'm sweating oceans."

"We have air conditioners in here." Rayne deadpanned to which all of the crew of the tank looked at the gun operator. They did notice that she was sweating. A little bit surprised at the gunner, the commander shook her head. "You can't be serious, it's like 14 or 12 degrees in here."

"I grew up on an extremely cold planet, commander." The gun operator told her, "Didn't I mention that?"

"Uh no you di—"

The tank was suddenly stopped as one of it's' tracks was shown on the monitors that it had been destroyed causing the large tank to stop dead in its tracks, no pun intended. The enemy xenos quickly pressing their attack on the large armor clad vehicle the infantry holding them at bay with the support guns of the tank helping them.

"Oh shit." The co-driver cursed tapping away at his weapons console making the heavy machine guns rattle as their payload was unleashed in a torrent of spiraling projectiles that tore through the light enemy armor…after they broke through the kinetic barriers first, like in space the enemy's kinetic shields were pretty easily negated by rapid firing kinetic armaments. Enemy infantry seemed almost impervious but then again they had blue magicians helping them, which was what prompted the 79th Psi Com unit to be attached to the 99th Army Group…except Rayne wasn't seeing them anywhere and those Asari soldiers were getting too close for comfort.

"Computer, damage report!" Rayne screamed and was met with silence. "Hest, what the hell happened to the computer systems?!"

Hest, the analyst, shook his head, typing frantically on his holokeyboard. "I don't know but I'm working on it!"

"Well work faster, I don't wan—"

The tank was hit with a concentrated blast from several enemy armored vehicles that had crested over the hill and rapidly driving their way down the side, providing cover to the combined forces of Turian and Asari soldiers as well as a few Krogan and Salarians and the Tunaroid-like beings, the humans. It was a maddening experience in Rayne's humble opinion, seeing this many species working together. It was also quite disturbing about the fact that the humans looked so much like Tunari, as if they were long lost twins in the vast cosmos but she knew they weren't.

By the Holy One's grace they were different and the humans were just aliens in Tunaroid disguises. Very convincing ones, she'll admit.

"Commander the main gun is offline!" The gun operator yelled. "We're down to the secondary guns."

"Armor integrity is failing…concentrated fire is compromising the forward hull!" The analyst screamed as he read off of his small terminal screen. "Auto-repair has failed!"

The situation suddenly looked grim and Rayne fought down the panic attack that had surged up from the deepest pits of her bowels, she wasn't about to let any xeno scum get the better of her…not yet and not ever! "Reroute power from non-essential systems and focus fire on the enemy armor. I want them gon—"

She never finished her sentence as her vision was engulfed in a bright light right before all feeling in her body was gone and she, along with her crew and tank, ceased to exist. Though a single thought went through her mind just before the light claimed her, it went along the lines of _who designed a tank with its engines in the front?!_

 **=/\=**

 **[2183 CE]  
[3000.02.01 CC]**

 **[Unknown Asari Colony bordering Turian Space]  
[Grid 5-34, Sector 13 – Hill 94]**

 **[99** **th** **Army Group – 19** **th** **Mechanized Infantry]  
[Sgt. Killian Verge]**

 _Outskirts of Asari colonial city at the Southern Base of Hill 94C-12E-X12…or Hill 94 for short_

"Welp, there goes our armor support." Killian Verge, with a slight glower and his left eyebrow raised, said in a deadpan tone as he and his squad of five-himself included-watched as the Behemoth class battletank exploded into a spectacular ball of red and orange fire and ash with several pieces of its torn and tattered armor flying in an upward direction, falling down on those unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of the tank, the ones standing next to the tank when it went up in flames were simply…gone. "Lora, get on the mike and tell them dunderheads at Forward Center that we've lost our armor. Make it quick, I doubt the blues and the fringes are gonna hold back now, not to mention we got lizards on our flanks and the knockoff Tunari look-alikes keeping us from getting up this damned hill."

"I'm on it," Lora, in a gruff but still feminine voice nodded as she grabbed the ear comm transmitter from her pack and using her NeLI she sent out the call. Meanwhile, the other members of Killian's squad sighed and began reloading or checking their weapons, the other men and women around them scurrying around their position to get to better cover, enemy armor and infantry rolling down the side of the hill to meet them head on now that their heavy hitter was out of the game.

"I don't plan on dying today, you know." Killian spared a glance to his machine gunner, Corporal Vance, a tall dark skinned Tunari from the burning words of Messa in the _Burni_ sector. "I got me a wife and kid back home to get back to…I promised the missus…I ain't going back in a body bag or as dust…and neither as a tag. Ain't no xeno gonna kill me while I got a promise to keep."

"I hear ya." Killian glanced over at the youngest and dare he say it, oddest of his squad. Private 3rd Class, Uriel 'The Imp' Nister, who by all that was holy must have been a mistake for the man was a dwarf…a midget…a bloody short person. In a world where genetic defuncts were corrected at the fetal stage, this man standing before him, who he sees on a frakking daily basis…this person, was like a bad miracle that somehow crept through the proverbial crack in the Holy design of things. One of these days Killian was sure somebody else would point out that little fact…about the gene therapy bit but he kept his mouth shut on that front, why? Well maybe the fact that the dwarf can kill him in several different ways would be a factor, he guessed, not that he was prejudiced or anything but in this day and age with the tech the Covenant has at their disposal? Well one can guess why he found the dwarf a bit of an oddity…even though he's served with the man for well up to five years now and had been saved by him a couple of times…Killian's mood suddenly plummeted when he thought about the third time he had been saved but that's another story for another time. "Sergeant, you're staring at me…again."

"What?" Killian managed to say before he snapped out of whatever trance had him in its grasp and apologized to his small squadmate…Killian groaned in his mind, he really needed to stop referring to Uriel in that manner, even if its only in his head, the man was a soldier and a damned good one too, despite the fact he was…well, a dwarf. "Sorry, Nister."

"And that's the seventh time you've called me by another of my names, again." The other members of the squad started snickering, bar Lora who was still talking to HQ, Uriel gave Killian his signature smirk that made the snickering even worse. Killian groaned and glared at the rest of his squad. The immediately stopped and began to take more interests in their weapons, "You must be forgetful in your old age, eh?"

"Yeah, whatever, just get your gear ready, _private_." Killian grounded out his emphasis on the dwarf's rank but had a smile on his face. He turned away from the others to Lora who looked like she was finished, "What did the dunders at Forward Center have to say this time?"

"Well, sergeant." Lora inclined her head sideways whilst raising her eyebrows, accompanied by a shrug and a tired sigh. "It seems Hill 94 is no longer needed."

"I'm sorry, say that again."

The others in the squad stopped what they were doing and turned to Lora who repeated what she said, slowly and in a more clear tone, as if she was speaking to children. A frown appeared on the sergeant's face as he too sighed tiredly with a bit of frustration seeping into his exhaled breath and glanced at the hill, watching as the enemy took their positions and began a slow crawl down toward them.

"So what are our new orders?" Corporal Vance asked, worryingly eyeing the incoming wave of enemy light armor and infantry, their first line of trenches coming under fire and the squads stationed there firing back. Anti-tank weapons and machine gun emplacements complemented by what few Psi-Commandos there were furiously holding out against the onslaught of blue skinned magic wielding bitches followed by slippery lizards and reckless humans, and then there were the fringes, each one adequately giving the soldiers of the 19th a run for their money.

High-end energy shields barring access to the trenchlines below this side of the hill were being pestered by the enemy rapid firing heavy guns, DEWs were used by the troops to offset the new enemy's reliance on kinetic barriers, but now without armor support, said armor a smoking wreck just a few meters ahead of the trenchlines, the advance in taking Hill 94 is halted and most likely would be pushed back. The odds have not yet changed but they may as well change sooner what with the enemy having more numbers most of whom were Asari which bode ill for the first line of defense, and right now Killian and his squad were recharging weapons and restocking on other munitions, they needed to get back into the fight but first Killian needed to clarify the message from Forward Center.

"Sergeant Verge!" Killian snapped his head sideways to see his company's commanding officer, Captain Vandal, the man was dressed in his combat exo-armor, face obscured by the full face helmet he wore. "We are leaving!"

"What?!" The squad looked at each other quizzically before turning back to their CO.

"Forward Center has issued a general retreat!"

"Why?!" Ordering a general retreat never happens without express permission from the highest of authority and that was the Divine Authority of the Holy One Himself, it was a proven fact that most important decisions made by the government was through the divine will and power of the Holy One, as proven by the Priesthood and the Imperator time and time again. However, the question still remains as to why they were going to retreat when clearly they had the superior hand for the moment. They only needed to push their advantage via surgical precise strikes against the concentrated number of enemy magicians…er...biotics they're called.

"Apocalypse."

Killian blinked only once but nodded not needing to be told twice. He and his soldiers grabbed what gear they could and high tailed it as fast they could to the nearest transport. They needed to get the hell off the planet as soon as possible because he did not want to be stuck here if the apocalypse was coming to town.

 **=\/=**

 **(** _ **Gameplay Time: 3wks 04days 08hrs 59mins 12secs**_ **)**

 **[Apocalypse Class - Colossus]  
[** _ **End**_ _ **of**_ _ **Times -**_ **Bridge]**

A solemn silence reigned over the room as the lush gaia world came into view, the viewing window with its reinforced plasteel glass allowing the bridge crew an obstructed view of the planet before them. Its dark side showed the hazardous flames of death lighting up the night sky, black clouds clogged the sunny side of the planet and in its orbit was the 8th Fleet/Holy Hammer, the ships silhouetted against the star's shining form. Upon the platform in the middle of the bridge stood Admiral Ian Thorn, the man had aged well past 200 years due to the medical sciences of the Covenant's ever vigilant R&D Division. And so it was that that same Division was responsible for one of the most powerful weapons in the Covenant arsenal. This beast of an architecture, this monstrosity of power, this weapon of war designed for the sole purpose of destroying entire planets. Granted, a shot from a Titan's Perdition Beam would devastate a planet, this Colossus on the other hand would simply shatter the planet into tiny bits and pieces, however, should the need arise the other Colossus _The Purge_ with its neutron sweeper would just cleanse the planet of the filthy xeno whilst leaving the world intact but for now a message was to be sent to the Citadel races.

A fact not lost on the aging admiral who smiled at the sight of the next victim to come into contact with the tested claws of the _End of Times_. An apt name for such a weapon, he mused.

"Entering the planet's orbit, in T-minus 30 minutes," The monotonous voice announced over the speakers in the chamber, bringing the _End of Times_ that much closer to its target. Admiral Thorn watched in amusement as the 8th Fleet scrambled its ships away from the planet, heading past his giant mobile station of death, like insects scurrying away from a bird of prey, he smiled happily at that mental picture.

"We're getting hailed by the 8th Fleet's flagship, Admiral Thorn." Thorn raised an eyebrow at that statement, wondering why on earth the fleet admiral was calling.

"Very well, on screen." Admiral Thorn waved his right hand dismissively turning his attention toward the large holo display above the main viewing window. A 3D image of the 8th Fleet's admiral appeared and Thorn's wrinkles cringed as he recognized the man. "Udnoy."

"Thorn." Was the reply from the former Pirate King, whose face showed he was none too pleased to see the old admiral. "Aren't you dead yet?"

"I see you're not in your cage." Admiral Thorn hissed back at the man who grinned smugly at him. "Where is your Warden?"

"I am here." The Warden's face appeared next to Admiral Udnoy's who frowned, having an annoyed expression aimed at the Warden. "There is no need to worry, Admiral Thorn. This one's leash is firmly held in place but should he pull too much…"

The Warden let his words hang for a moment causing the former pirate to growl at him but was ignored. Admiral Thorn sneered at Udnoy before the Warden bowed and faded away from view leaving behind a grumbling former Pirate King.

"What the hell do I have to do to prove I'm not a liability around here?" Udnoy muttered irritably to himself.

"Was there a purpose to this undesired call, filth." Admiral Thorn narrowed his eyes at the image of the man who simply looked at him before his 3D image disappeared in wisp of fading particles. For a mere second Thorn stood frozen in his spot before he began snarling, "Insufferable flea ridden pirate scum."

"Admiral." The old admiral turned to look at who called him, seeing a man wearing the lapel of a lieutenant on his collar, nodding toward the man to continue. "We're within range of the planet now, shall I begin the sequence?"

The crew aboard the bridge all looked to the man standing on the platform, his posture straight and rigid, his wrinkled skin giving him an aura of wisdom encompassing them all, his eyes roaming from one man to the next making eye contact with each of them. Then with a short breath he spoke, "Begin sequence, lieutenant."

For the next forty minutes the firing sequence was set as the crew and technicians on the bridge moved around the bridge from one terminal to the next calling to each other and contacting the engineering bays and checking for anything out of the ordinary with the firing of the planet killer. Light dances across their faces as their terminals lit up in a wide array of the light spectrum throwing random colors around the bridge, this made Thorn a little dizzy being dazzled left and right by these irritating color lights but by now he didn't care anymore.

Having served for nearly one hundred and fifty-eight years, he has come to liken the colored lights to those of the fireworks during celebrations back on his homeworld of Ellor Prime, the Governing world of the Ellori Sector. However, in all that time he had finally found the ultimate light show, a show worthy of being called the firework of the millennia if not eternity. The show that was about to unfold before him, as he had seen it countless times before, now filled his old bones once again with excitement and glee as if he could take on the whole world all on his own, his eyes watching from his platform through the plasteel glass as the arms of the colossus extended outward to their fullest, with the smaller arms following suit, and the pulsing energy vibrating throughout the colossus' hull beneath his feet.

"Admiral Thorn, weapon charge complete." The same lieutenant informed him as he counted his breath before closing his eyes.

In the silence, in that moment, at that particular time the crew watched in anticipation, waiting for the order to be given by their leader, praying to the Holy One that this decision to unleash the power of this beast was the right one. For many within the Covenant itself had questioned the existence of such a device, and even amongst this crew there are some that did not see a reason for such a weapon to exist yet years of conditioned obedience toward the norm and to the government and the invisible but guiding hand of the Holy One have thus far stayed their hand from acting out against the established order. It was a disconcerting thing to the Admiral that such fractures were present within his crew, something that he had noticed over the years, but as a leader amongst his people, and by the Holy One's grace, he will show these younglings the light of the Holy One and that no other but the Holy One's power through his worshipper's creations is the only way whether wrong or right. This machine of death will be the weapon that opens the eyes of those that have not yet been affirmed in their belief to the Holy One. For the Holy One's will is to be done no matter the cost and if the believers should falter then their faith must be renewed in Him in fire and death.

With his mind settled upon his decision aided by the Holy One's hand, which he could feel like so many times before, Admiral Ian Thorn opened his eyes and breathed out, "You may fire when ready."

 **=/\=**

 **[Asari Colony]**

 **[Hill 94]**

 _2 hours prior to End of Times' arrival…_

"They're retreating!" Somebody shouted over the ear splitting rapid cacophony of gunfire and the roar of light tanks booming both near and in the distance. A group of Asari combatants rushed down the hill closely followed by Turians and Humans as they made their way toward the forward position of the humanoid shaped enemy that had invaded the colony. Said colony was not a large one, it was a fairly recent addition to the Asari Republics even, but somehow the aliens had managed to find it so far out of Turian space that it unnerved a lot of people on the planet itself and the Republics and the Citadel in general.

"Flank 'em!" A human barked orders pointing wildly with his hands at the retreating forms of the enemy. Their armor giving them a general human appearance but it has yet to be determined whether or not they were actually humans or Asari-type aliens. However, rumors have been flying around that the new but aggressive kids on the block are actually humans, though not many would believe that yet.

Enemy light tanks gave as good as they got from disruptor warheads plunging into them causing them to explode from within killing several nearby aliens as well. A squad of humans and Turians rushed forward toward the energy shielded bunkers with the intent on taking it intact but when they got there it promptly detonated into eternity as the earth shook and shattered remains of the would-be occupiers were thrown around. Gore and blood decorated several salarians nearby who had been tinkering with one of the downed alien tanks trying to get it to work.

But through all that, through the shouting and the deafening gunshots cracking the air, a lone Asari waded her way down through the muck, blood and gore trying hard not to throw up her lunch, regretting even having lunch. With her head held low and eyes peeled for any threat she made her way around burned out wreckage of enemy tanks, bodies and equipment. Her light armor giving her the extra needed mobility.

She shivered when she came upon a gruesome sight, not wanting to look at it any longer than she had to, the Asari sidestepped around the gory sight and continued on with a purpose. Her eyes finding her target, she activated her cloaking system her body disappearing from sight as if she never existed, only the slight wobbly waves of light around her leaving evidence that she was there. Her cloak was not the best but it got her by without a hitch and several times had saved her life…like now.

" _Thela you there?"_ She paused for a moment, cursing her radio before moving on. Careful not to make a sound, her eyes watching the four figures currently carrying large blocks of what she can only assume as explosives up the burned out chassis of the largest tank she had ever laid eyes on. It's twin barrels deformed but overall still giving it that menacing look as if to say that even in its current state it was dangerous as when it was alive. She shuddered involuntarily as she thought back to when she had first seen these things enter the city, blasting through and knocking down hardened skyscrapers like they were paper instead of the steel and concrete that they were.

" _Thela come in, where are you?"_

"I'm at the site." She whispered into her radio trying as hard as she could not to be spotted or heard. Moving on her stomach through the mud she sighed as she was hidden from sight by a large piece of debris. "Intel was right, they're planting explosives like they did in the city with the other tanks."

" _You know what to do. We can't afford to lose another opportunity like this again. That tank is still largely intact and we need it that way._ " She nodded along with the voice but then frowned, she may be an Asari but she wasn't a qualified Commando for Athame's sake. She was only a mercenary, for like a year, that just happened to be stuck on the planet doing security work for some up and coming company when shit hit the fan as the humans are fond of saying when in a bad situation.

Her mind snapped back to her current situation when she heard the distinct shouting and words being spoken by the aliens, drawing her attention to them as she peeked out of her cover. By her estimates they had finished placing the explosives and are getting ready to bail out but before she could make her move she spotted two more of them coming around from the other side of the tank. _Dammit!_ She cursed herself from being a little too hasty, she waited a moment before they were all together before she activated her cloak again and hurrying over to the next available cover.

She skidded on a slippery piece of ground causing a little bit of dirt to move around and piece of debris to be dislodged from the ground, it made a not so loud noise that got the attention of the six alien who raised their weapons. She quickly dove into cover as they opened fire. "Crap!"

Cursing her luck the Asari popped out of her cover and threw out a singularity, it was weak but it may be enough to deal with this crowd, before ducking back into cover and pulling out her SMG. Taking five quick breaths she popped out of cover again and took a shot at the nearest alien combatant who was floating in the air trying to grab its weapon that floated just out of reach. Three more of the aliens were caught in the singularity but one of them had its weapon and fired at her as soon as she shot at her target.

She plopped back into cover checking to see if her cloak had cooled down, seeing that it had she activated it and sprinted away from her position toward a new one luckily not being noticed by the other three aliens who rushed over to her last known position.

Thela grunted as she took deep breaths and her cloak gave out, she had managed to hide behind the tank but the shouting made her realize that the aliens were still trying to find her. She chanced a peek and saw that the one she had shot was lying on the ground in a pool of its own blood, she smiled at that and moved out of cover throwing a singularity at them followed by a warp.

She took aim and followed with a burst from her SMG, her quick tactic proved effective in taking two out of the fight temporarily, another one imploding from the Warp she threw at him, one disappearing behind a large piece of debris and the other one she shot at died instantly when the high velocity grain sized bullets pierced his helmet's faceplate. She quickly turned to the two floating and shot at them but had to move away to find cover when her barriers were peppered with high impact kinetic rounds from the one that had taken cover.

Cursing once more for being a little bit too cocky she made a blind shot before activating her cloak again and going around her cover, she saw the alien coming out of its own cover and threw another warp at it causing it to implode much like its friend. This all happened relatively fast, but to her it was almost as if time slowed down but now that everything returned to normal (atleast for her), she looked around, admiring her handiwork.

"Not bad for a rookie mercenary. If I do say so myself," She smirked, but then she heard somebody coughing and went to investigate. She found one of the aliens lying down facing the sky, she approached it and observed that it had the overall masculine body type typically associated with males of the human or batarian variety. Curiosity taking its natural course in her, she reached down and grabbed its collar, it grunted in pain but she ignored that in favor of taking off its helmet.

What she saw behind the helmet confirmed what many of the rumors have been saying. There was no doubt in her mind that this thing was human, the anatomy and body shape matched perfectly, however, she did question the color of the blood. It being light purple instead of the iron red that is normal for humans, but even then she firmly believed that these aliens were in fact humans…if not the humans that the rest of the galaxy knew of. Could it be that they are some long lost human cousin or something? She wondered, her mind wandering in her head but the sneer on the human's face caught her attention.

"What are you sneering at?" She narrowed her eyes down at him, but he looked up at her without hiding the clear disdain and hatred in his grey eyes. She huffed at his arrogance and let him go, dropping him painfully to the ground.

" _Thela, come in. What's your status?"_

"I'm cleared here." The Asari mercenary happily reported but then scowled down at the human when he began to laugh, it was a light cough ridden laugh that soon grew into an outright maniacal booming laughter mixed in with heavy coughing of blood and occasional grunting of pain. She raised a questioning brow at him shaking her head, mildly pitying the man, but then he spoke and she froze…for he was speaking in fluent Asari.

"The _End of Times_ is upon you." He said, a huge murderous grin on his face as he coughed out the last of his energy before a loud booming sound brought Thela's eyes to turn upwards. There in the sky…was a large structure that was not there before…it hung up high above the clouds its center glowing red before a beam of light so bright forced itself upon the ground in a lance of red hot beams that bore through the earth. She was shaken off her feet as the ground shook so hard her view of the world became wobbly, try as she might she could not get up and had to lay down on the ground with the mud and the blood and assorted body parts from her Warp victims staring disbelievingly at the red shaft off in the distance.

" _Thela are you seei—"_ The voice on the other end of the radio ended in static and it was the last thing the Asari maiden known as Thela, would ever hear again.

 **=/\=**

 **[2183]  
[Citadel – Presidium]**

 **[Private Conference Room – Council Chambers]**

"Admiral Hackett, an honor to finally meet you in person." Councilor Tevos greeted the human Systems Alliance Admiral with a cordial smile and a customary human handshake followed by the begrudging nod from Sparatus and a slight acknowledging stare from the Salarian Councilor, Valern.

"The honor is mine, Councilor." Admiral Hackett returned the gesture with a nod of his own barely taking notice of the other two Councilors in the room. He took a seat at the conference table, looking at the three top guns of the Citadel Council he cleared his throat before asking the Asari councilor, "Although I was selected to represent the System Alliance's interest in the matter regarding the aggressive new contact bordering Turian space, I still wonder why you specifically requested me."

All three Councilors looked at one another before Sparatus spoke on their behalf, "Admiral, you're one of humanity's greatest leaders since the 314 Incident; we felt that your skills in space naval combat was needed in this growing conflict."

Admiral Hackett remained silent which the Turian took it as his cue to continue. "We're also quite certain that these aggressors may be human."

"I've heard the rumors—" Hackett began but was interrupted by the Salarian in the room who laughed before speaking, his voice laced with suspicion as his large black eyes narrowed.

"We have enough bodies for an autopsy to be conducted. They're definitely human." Valern stated firmly, his eyes never leaving the Admiral's, who glared right back at him for such an accusation.

"That does not prove that they're human, their blood is quite different as are some of their organs." Hackett narrowed his eyes at the Salarian as he pointed out the differences between his species and that of the aggressors.

"Be that as it may," Valern scoffed, "The base genetic DNA shows quite clearly that they are humans despite the blood. In fact it comes down to genetic manipulation on a scale we aren't even capable of..that is the result of the difference you speak of."

Admiral Hackett stared at the Salarian, torn between punching the arrogant lizard and trying to process that information. Even if Alliance intel on these new aggressors said they weren't human…the fact remained that the Salarians were the smartest species in their own right and if what the Councilor said is true then what the hell does that mean for the rest of humaniy?

"I don't know what to say to that but whoever they are, we are not them." Hackett declared firmly, there was a burning fire behind his words as he glared at the salarian who kept his expression straight…at least that was what Hackett thought he was doing since Salarian expressions wasn't exactly a thing he knows anything about.

Tevos felt that the conversation was headed toward dangerous waters so she interrupted before both did anything stupid but she knew deep down that the two weren't going to do anything so drastic, like go at each other's throats, most likely the talks would just end with either one leaving the room but she couldn't afford to have that, the Citadel couldn't afford to have that. Not when things have just become direr than before.

"Gentlemen please," the Asari smiled at both of them sending a glare at the Turian who was no doubt smirking at her effort. "Whilst Councilor Valern raises a valid point, I believe that further investigation is needed to determine whether these aggressors are indeed the humans we know."

"Humans we know?" Sparatus raised on of his metallic eyebrows at the Asari wondering where she was getting at with this.

Admiral Hackett was also a little intrigued by the Asari's phrase of words. Valern merely squinted disapprovingly at her before relenting.

"Now," Tevos said, looking at each of the males seating before her. "The Asari Republics in conjunction with the Salarian Union have done preliminary autopsies on the alien bodies recovered belonging to the aggressors and have concluded that they bear remarkable genetic similarities with humans as he stated before."

"Makes sense actually," Sparatus put in his two cents but stopped when the others were looking at him. "We weren't sure what to do with the information we had in our hands, field autopsies done by our medics during the first ground battle revealed similar findings. At first Palaven High Command wanted immediate action against the Systems Alliance but cooler heads prevailed. I assume you found the anomaly as well?"

Both Tevos and Valern nodded but Admiral Hackett was beginning to feel left out of the conversation even though he was following it as best he could. What the Councilors were talking about was news to him, hell one of the reasons he agreed to represent the SA was to gather information in order to ascertain the true nature of the rumors and the information Alliance Intelligence was able to gather on their own.

"If you don't mind…" Hackett cleared his throat getting their attention. "What exactly did you find?"

"Ww weren't sure how'd you react, but thanks to Valern you didn't do too badly." Tevos hesitated glancing to her counterparts before breathing in and with a nod from them she looked straight at the Admiral and told him. "As my fellow Councilor explained, the new species are human but only on a base DNA level. I don't know much of the science behind it but the Salarians were the ones who discovered that these _humans_ had extensive genetic tampering on a scale we've never seen before. They're larger, stronger and smarter than we can imagine."

Tevos paused to see if the Admiral was following her, it looked like he did because his eyes were slowly widening in surprise before he schooled it back to a neutral expression.

"We've been facing them for quite a few months now and in that time we've lost five colonies near the outer rim," Sparatus spoke up looking straight at the human admiral. "Our losses have exceeded billions now and Palaven Command has heard back from those that managed to survive that these _humans_ or _Neo_ - _Humans_ as the scientists have taken to calling, are purging entire worlds."

It was quite the shock, really, what they've encountered was something on par with the Rachni Wars. Admiral Hackett needed to get this information back to the Alliance to prepare for the inevitable, it won't be that long before humanity comes face to face with these people. His voice never faltering but the horror and disgust was there, "Purging?"

"They're killing off my people, Admiral." Sparatus stated, he sounded angry but refrained from being outright hostile because this wasn't the human responsible for the death of so many of his Turian brothers and sisters. "The colonies they conquered have become slaughter houses."

"Therefore you see the need for us to work together now more than ever," Tevos interjected before that line of conversation went somewhere unwanted. She looked the human in the eyes when she said, "Your species are not these people, we know that, but we need your assurance and that of your government that you'll do the right thing here and not let these people get away with what they're doing."

"Of course," Admiral Hackett answered almost immediately, causing Tevos to smile inwardly. "The Systems Alliance will offer its full support, you have my word and I'll make sure of it. I just need the information you have and I'll be able to convince the Parliament on Arcturus to act."

Tevos was actually surprised he was very receptive but not to look a gift horse in the mouth as the humans are fond of saying, she nodded and Valern handed over the datapad he had on him and she passed it to the admiral who took it with a nod. "I'll get this to the Alliance immediately," Hackett told them but before he could get up from his chair the Salarian Councilor spoke.

"This may or may not be relevant," Valern said, causing Admiral Hackett to sit back down. "But is there any chance you know of anything about psionics?"

Blood seemed to drain entire from his face as Admiral Hackett went pale, Tevos' eyes went wide in response to that, being a species closer in mannerisms to humans, she understood that it was a sign the Admiral knew what the Salarian was talking about. With that one word the human in the room suddenly felt like he'd been caught in the headlights of a fast approaching cruiser.

"You'll find the information regarding the Neo-humans with that ability with the rest of the information that we've compiled, Admiral." Tevos had never spoke so fast before in her entire life. This made the Turian and Salarian councilors stare at her for a moment, she cursed herself but she was certain that the Admiral wasn't comfortable around a certain topic being discussed and it looked like he'd rather not talk about it and ever the diplomat, she had tried to mediate before any trouble could even begin.

She was about to say something further when she was suddenly interrupted by an aide, a human woman, bursting into the conference room with a frantic look on her face. She was sweating and panting, as if she had run all the way to here. Admiral Hackett turned his head to her and saw the horrified look in her eyes as she spotted Tevos and strode directly to her.

"Ma'am, the Matriarchs have been trying to call you. It's urgent….something has happened." The aide said between breaths handing over a data pad to the Asari Councilor who took it and began reading through the data, eyes widening with the same horror in her eyes as the aide but a look of disbelief ran across her face before she turned to the Salarian Councilor.

"Valern, has STG reported in anything new regarding the aggressor's fleet movements?" She asked, nearly sounding desperate but Admiral Hackett could clearly see she was distraught over something.

In a flash the Salarian had his omnitool activated and was flicking through it before nodding furiously. "I recently received a video file, displaying it now."

He pressed a few hardlight buttons and the conference table's middle began glowing and a holographic image of a space station was shown. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before, it had sloping angles and looked sleek and streamlined like the ship profiles the former unknown, now identified Neo-human aliens used. However, Valern gasped when he read the statistical data that came with the video file.

"That can't be right." Sparatus himself frowned and looked at the Salarian for confirmation.

"Afraid it is." Valern said in fast but grim tone, eyes blinking faster than he spoke, a sign of agitation and anxiety. "Data does not lie. This space station is larger than the Citadel."

"What?!" Tevos looked at the Salarian Councilor, alarmed at what he said. Admiral Hackett was equally disturbed by that revelation. Something as large as or even larger than the Citadel…it was inconceivable yet from what the intel he had gotten from the STG and the Citadel Council, the new contacts barely used eezo which no doubt put no limit to the size of their structures or ships but that would have no doubt taken considerable amount of energy to power.

"How large are we talking about?" Hackett inquired and was immediately obliged.

"Estimated size in height…120km," Valern stated causing the human Admiral to contemplate the information. "Widest estimated at 80km, this station is also mobile."

"If that is true…then what are we looking at here?" Sparatus brought up a good point and all turned their attention back to the display. "Play it through."

The video that was paused now began playing again, the large station was indeed mobile given that it was moving in the void. Soon it came toward a planet and Tevos held her breath as did the aide. They watched as the ships that had been bombarding the planet along with the troop transports scrambling away from the planet as fast as they could before the station in question reoriented itself vertically above orbit of the Asari colony.

With subdued awe, the Councilors, aide and the human Admiral watched in stunned fascination as the mobile space station opened its arms, four of them longer than the Citadel's arms, it had four smaller arms further down and it looked like it had four smaller thrusters and a larger engine. For a moment nothing happened then a shaft of light appeared from the tip of the station facing the planet below it, it was intense and looked to be drilling through the surface of the planet. The data was read by Valern who translated what was happening to the planet when suddenly a bright pulse of light temporarily blinded them and then they watched helplessly as the planet began to shatter apart into pieces.

Once where there was a lush garden world now remained a shattered husk floating in space. The station was largely unaffected by the resulting blast as it shield's flared to life and when it felt it's deed was done its arms closed and it began moving away toward the edge of the system.

The video stopped playing and the occupants of the conference room remained silent for minutes before Tevos broke the silence with a gasp, "Goddess…"

"You'll have the full support of the Systems Alliance, I'll make sure of it." Admiral Hackett spoke, his tone suggested he was determined to convince his leaders of the threat they were going to face. The Reapers can wait, he thought, for whoever these people are they just showed him irrevocable proof that they cared nothing for life if they were willing to destroy an entire planet, never mind that they are or may not be humans. He needed the Systems Alliance to see this threat as what it is not what that they were related. "I need to contact Arcturus."

With that the human admiral left the conference room followed by the aide who would show him out. Meanwhile the Councilors were still sitting at the table too stunned to even speak or nod in agreement to the human as all of their thoughts were on the lives lost, millions of innocents dead in a matter of minutes. What enemy were they facing…what lengths would they go to for their religion…why did they have to face such a foe. These were the questions going through their minds as they replayed the video again and again watching with growing contempt and hatred for these beings, the matter of psionics temporarily forgotten …for in the end the humans would likely be their best hope in defeating this new enemy.

"I'm going to the Asari Embassy," Tevos declared, "I need to contact the Matriarchs, this has just escalated into something on the level of the Rachni Wars…maybe even worse." Yet she remained seated, unable to trust her legs to carry her to her offices…at least not yet.

"Indeed." Valern agreed, silently happy that such an opportunity to gain new technologies was within grasp of the Salarian union…should they play their cards right. He looked to Sparatus no doubt the Turians would scramble to get their hands on the enemy's tech as well, a subtle discouragement would be needed to keep the playing field leveled. But in essence they would need to work together to prevent another catastrophe like what they just saw.

"I'll contact the Primarch…Spirits, I still can't believe that entire world…is just gone." Sparatus lowered his head, offering a small prayer for the lost souls. His anger ever growing at witnessing this newest atrocity, "We're upping production, we'll need more eezo in the process, but that means more mining of said eezo is needed and we all know that we're running low. We're already disregarding the Treaty of Firaxien." Sparatus pointed out, "Why not lift the ban on exploring new Relays."

"I-" Tevos hesitated not knowing why, it has always been their creed that no new Relays would be opened but without knowing more about their new enemy, they're hard pressed to begin searching for more resources in order to fuel the war machines they'll need against the Neo-Humans but that means more avenues of eezo were needed and that means they needed to open new relays. It was a dilemma she wasn't qualified to make a decision on…that falls into the Matriachs' hands and a select few Salarians and Turians. "I'll bring it up with the Matriahcs."

Tevos quickly left the conference room, trying hard not to think about the lost colony. She may have not known anyone there but they were her people…she felt their loss as her own. ' _There really is going to be a war_ ' She thought grimly to herself.

Sparatus was soon to follow heading to the Turian Embassy leaving the Salarian in the room all by his lonesome. He sat there unmoving before he flicked his wrist and played the video once more, marveling at the power such a weapon had but if only his people could have such power…

Unbeknownst to them all a presence in the room cackled madly as it floated about, having watched their varying expressions at the revelation of the newest Covenant toy. It crested up the unknowing Salarian's back and whispered in his ear, _**Patience child….**_

Valern felt a chill go down his spine as he looked around, the video paused and forgotten as he swore he could have felt someone was right there with him. He shook his head, blinking and ignoring the cold feeling he got in this room.

 **=\/=**

 **Trick Question #1: To which title or song does this part of a lyric belong to…Fans will know of it instantly I'm sure.**

" _And who are you, the proud Lord said, that I must bow so low_

 _Only a cat of a different coat, that's all the truth I know,,_

 **Next update will depend on whether or not I'm free from work since independence is nearing the corner and people are going to go bat shit crazy with their perceived freedoms…I am so not going to enjoy this coming independence day.**

 **In other news Please review or PM**

 **Danen5 signing off.**


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